Reading Material
by Margolo Blu
Summary: A Taurus Fanfic. Taurus returns a book, and gets involved in several oddball adventures.
1. Adding Up

_I do not own Taurus or any characters that appear in the Gargoyles series. _

**Reading Material**

_Adding Up_

New York City was the city for vermin. Roaches scattered under slimed covered garbage. Rats boldly perched on the corners of dumpsters. Pigeons cooed from dung covered roosts. Where roaches, pigeons, and rats dare not to tread and treaded, humans lurked. Humans lurked by the thousands. Some walked in crowds down the sidewalks, blind to the world, cells phones in hands and against their heads. In even larger multitudes, more humans in slow, ground vehicles blocked the streets, spewing noise and pollution into the air. The traffic jam slowly worked down the street like a slug down a leaf. Other humans crawled into back alleys, brown bags with bottle necks sticking out and needles hidden away in torn and old clothing. Some stunk heavily of perfume, of concentrated flowers; others stank of the same grotesque fumes of the garbage cans and refuse that littered the streets. None was pleasant to Taurus's broad muzzle.

It was worse that in a city of vermin, Taurus had to find the lowest form of life on earth in the mixing pot of the lowest forms of life on earth.

Taurus, hidden the shadows of an alleyway, stared out into the street, which was hidden under the feet of Homo Sapiens or under the tires of the harmful automobiles. As if this city street was crawling under his skin, Taurus shivered.

Each human could be Proteus, as if he could not become any lower in form. There were too many humans for Taurus to count, too many for Taurus to even handle or ever wanting to see. Thinking back to his training, Taurus tried looking for any atypical behavior in the humans, the behavior that might suggest a shapeshifter was slinking among them. But unfortunately for Taurus and fortunately for Proteus, atypical behavior was the typical behavior of New York.

Every person who slunk into an alleyway drew his attention, but then he saw them pull out a needle or a bottle. Taurus was forced to turn his attention to other places.

This city sickened him. Every time he felt the urge to pull away, to leave, the image of his father burned into his head. Those eyes, wide and unseeing staring up at him, the hand, fingers curled, and the blood, the blood seeping out from underneath him like the slime from the streets. Taurus suppressed a snarl and another shutter, induced from an uncomfortable memory and an even more unnerving place.

Taurus moved farther back into the shadows, behind a dumpster, gripping his laser in his hand. He leaned against the walling, wryly thinking that the wall was much cleaner than the street in which his hooves rested on. From his left eye he watched the humans on the streets as he reflected. Moments later he closed both his eyes as he opened his ears to the world of noise around him. Too bad he could not close his nostrils.

When he wasn't thinking about his father or Proteus or his family's history, he thought about her. Her, Elisa Maza. She was the one human who proved herself honorable in Taurus's eyes. She proved herself quite well, a glittering star in a sky of dull ones. Not much could be said about her race. In New Olympus Taurus said there was hope for the humans, hope for peace between their people. But now standing there, in the shadows by a crowded street and by a dumpster that smelt strongly of old cheese and urine, only one adage came to his mind as he looked out onto the populace.

_Snowball's chance in hell._

There was hope for Elisa that was it. But not for them, definitely not for them. This city was huge, the human lands in which they lived were huge, but their world was so tiny. It was like watching ants on the anthill. One little pebble, one little oddity tossed into their oblivious society would cause mass panic.

_And anything could squash them. _

_Or they could swarm. _

Taurus scratched the bottom of his long jaw, grinning at the imagery of humans running, scattering, and swarming. They ran in fear, swarmed in stupidity. The grin disappeared. Fear and stupidity are the two most dangerous qualities for anything to have, every police officer knew that.

Taurus had to think of happier thoughts. He was admired in New Olympus as the proud son of Asterius, the epitome of honor and strength by the populace. Admired for the fact he held his head high despite several painful blows to his family and a history to match. But anyone close to Taurus would speak differently of their chief of security. Helios, who feared Taurus more than he esteemed him, was overhead repeatedly referring to Chief of Security Taurus as Chief Stick up the Ass Sideways. Despite overhearing these burning remarks, Taurus said nothing to his second command. Helios did not have an excellent reputation to soil like Taurus had. Much worse has been done to Taurus than a few derogatory comments made by the office asshole. Former girlfriends politely called Taurus "a very absorbed man". The more "shunned" girlfriends would say "he doesn't give a hell about starting a family, just looking back on his", which was true. And the worse part was the bitter women were the ones who really did care about him, the more polite ones were all for the novelty of dating the Chief of Security.

These thoughts of women brought Taurus back to Elisa. She was a very honorable soul indeed. However, Taurus would never admit, not even to himself, that maybe, he did not admire her completely for her principles. He could say she was honorable, trustworthy, and intelligent, and continually go on about those qualities. He thought wryly that there were many more qualities to Elisa than just those, but those were the only he would vocally speak of to others. Certain qualities were kept to the back of his mind and continually shaken off.

Duty calls; the duty to his family and to his land. Taurus had much more important obligations to tend to than possible blooming emotions to a human female who was obviously taken by the gargoyle Goliath, who himself was an respectable person, but he was only thought about when Taurus became to deep in thought over Elisa. Love was a possibility, meaning it could happen, meanwhile, Proteus was on the loose and dangerous. And he would do something dangerous. **Would** outweighed** could** on the thought scales of the minotaur police officer.

So lost in his thoughts, Taurus did not even sense the darkness behind him split as the backdoor as one of the shops that made the alley opened. Though his ears were appointed to the sounds of the streets, he did not hear the click of a key in a lock or the clicking of a heels on slimy pavement.

His thoughts were disturbed by a gasp behind him and several loud thuds.

Instinctually Taurus turned, pulling the laser gun out his belt and aiming into the darkness behind him, aware of spoiling his position. His ears and eyes pinpointed the cause of the sound and the barrel of his gun focused on a human woman standing in misty light of the alleyway.

The young woman stood there, hands held up, fingers spread in terror. She had already turned pale at the sight of Taurus. With the barrel of a contraption that appeared to be from the future aimed at the middle of her forehead in the three fingered hand of a creature from mythology, she paled even more. Before Taurus could shout an order at her, her eyes rolled in the back of her head and her knees gave out. With a moan she fainted, hitting the street soundly.

Taurus winced, gritting his teeth at the audible thump of a body hitting stone. He lowered his gun, praying that his position was not exposed. Sacrificing a moment, he looked over his shoulder to the streets. People still continued on with their lives, strolling down the sidewalks as if the thump was nothing more than a car horn. Taurus returned his attention to the girl spread out in the slime of the alleyway.

The girl was out cold, if it was not the fright that knocked her out, it had to be the fall. Tentatively Taurus put a heavy finger against the large vein in her neck. He could feel her steady pulse through the thin layer of skin and muscle in her neck. Several books, originally in a bag, lay at her feet. With equal apprehensiveness Taurus picked one up.

In order to read the book, Taurus had to practically press the book against his snout.

_The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break_

Minotaur

Taurus looked back at the woman. He chewed his bottom lip. Then he looked back at the book and then down at the two other books and numerous magazines laying in the muck.

Taurus gathered up the books and set them on his hovercraft. He returned to the woman and stood only a few feet from her head, contemplating. Other than Elisa Maza, Taurus had not seen a human up close. The only thing Taurus could say about this human's appearance was that she was not Elisa Maza. In fact, she looked exactly like the thousands of other New Yorkers in this city. Her hair was brown, that was obvious, and her build was soft and slim, lacking muscle structure. He wondered if all humans were this "squishy".

He could have left her there in the alleyway. She was just a human, just another one of those people out there on the streets. But she was harmless. In fact, she was terrified when she saw Taurus. Leaving her there could be a death warrant, she would be vulnerable for the lowest of the humans to prey upon, and Taurus could not be responsible for that. He was Chief of Security, his job was to protect, to uphold justice. He was feeling responsible as well for her current status.

He picked her up, wary not to let her touch him completely or smear any of that sludge on his chest plate. He took her to the building that she exited. The door was locked, but digging through her purse (it was the lesser of two evils he decided), he discovered the key and her driver's license.

Rachel.

Her name was Rachel.

He unlocked the door and dragged her into the building. In the shadows of the building, Taurus could make out bookshelves, several book shelves in fact, they took up the whole store. It was a bookstore, he presumed. He pulled the girl behind the register and set her there.

In a faint light, Taurus examined the woman's driving license. It was similar to the identification cards he carried in jail. He could read her name, age, gender, and address. He chewed his thumbnail, his eyes darting to the door, his minding thinking about the books sitting on his hovercraft. There were numerous books in this store he could browse through. He could only imagine what the books were about, what the humans said about the Minotaur, what truths or lies that were held in the pages. However, he had no human money and he could not exactly take them. That would be stealing. Even if he did not tell anyone that he stole the books, it would still be on his conscience. If inventory was taken in this store, it would be obvious that the books would be unpaid for and gone. They would know he stole the books, if this girl came to and remember what occurred earlier. Anyone knowing that the chief of security stole made Taurus stick to his stomach.

But there were the books outside on his hovercraft. He knew she owned them or bought them. He could just borrow the books. It is not stealing, and he could just return them.

Taurus removed his digital calendar from his belt. Flipping it open, he scanned through the dates. In two months, he had a week off, required by Boreas. He contemplated. His gaze flipped flopped between the digital calendar in one hand and the driver's license in the other.

Taurus typed into his calendar and returned it to its pocket on his belt. He hung around for a few minutes in the store before heading back out onto the street.

&&&

"Oh my god, Rachel, what happened to you?" Lisa, the store manager exclaimed. "Did someone rob the store?"

Rachel sat up, pressing her hand against her skull. At first she thought her hair stiff clotted with blood, but dirt crackled in her hands. "I think I was mugged last night."

"Oh my god, what happened?" Lisa quavered.

"I was jumped in the alleyway. The guy, he was, he was, he was…big. He pulled a gun on me. I fainted. He dragged me into the store," she whimpered.

"Were you raped?" Lisa asked, kneeling down beside her.

Rachel grew ecstatic. "No. Where's my purse?"

"It's over here, on the counter," Lisa said.

Rachel's purse lay on the counter, its contents spread out.

"It doesn't look you're missing any money; your pay check is still here," Lisa said.

"I had books," Rachel spoke up. "Where are my books?"

"I don't see them. Maybe they're out in the alley," Lisa said, helping Rachel up. "Do you want me to call the cops?"

"Please," Rachel said, stumbling to the back door.

Rachel opened the back door to the alleyway, lit in the morning sun. The alleyway was bare with the exception of a dent in the muck where her body lay.

"He stole my books," she said entering the store.

"Just your books? Were they of any value" Lisa said, setting the phone down. "I don't think the police are going to believe this one."

"Neither do I," said Rachel. She looked back out the door at the unobtrusive hoof prints in the muck.

&&&

Lisa did not bother calling the police. Both of them came to the agreement the cops would never investigate this sort of crime. Three books and magazines were gone, stolen. A register, a purse, and a young woman left untouched. Things did not add up.

Rachel went home and called work off for later that day.

After an hour long shower to remove all that alley slime, Rachel recollected the events of that night. She sat down on her couch and turned on her television. Frankly, she wanted to be reading her books instead of watching the morning news. It was irritating; she could not think of a reason why anyone would steal her books. In fact, the books were not even brand new! She had just the books returned to her last night by a college buddy after six months, and now, after finally receiving them, she has them taken away again! It was irritating.

Just who or preferably what attacked her was completely unknown. She thought she saw horns and maybe a snout. But she was sure of the gun. Maybe she was just jumped by one of those costumed Star Wars fans she see coming in and out of the comic store across the street. This was just a harmless prank, a harmless WEIRD prank that only they were capable of. Rachel made a note to visit that comic book store tomorrow before class and see if her books were there.

Rachel emptied her purse; before she left work in a hurry, she dumped everything in a ball into it. She wanted to make sure that everything was there, just in case. She spread the contents out on her coffee table. Several of her credit cards were pulled out of the slots in her wallet, but all were there, spread out through her makeup kits and keys. With receipts from earlier purchases, Rachel found a folded up piece of paper, a note written on the paper from a notepad from work. Rachel did not recall writing a note and putting it in her purse, so she opened it.

_To whom this may concern, _

_I have required several of your reading articles, which have to proven to be of particular interest to me and my plight. My deepest apologies about last night. It was not of my intentions to frighten you, nor take your books. Your reading materials will be properly be returned to you in two months time, on Julius Eighth at 9:00 pm. _

_Deepest regards, _

_Taurus_

Things definitely were not adding up.


	2. The New Guy

_Spot the Princess Bride reference.  
_

**The New Guy**

_A few days after Proteus's capture and return to the New Olympus security headquarters,  
_

"Toro Taurus!" Helios shouted, flinging Taurus's office door open. Never bother knocking.

Taurus quickly hid the book between his thighs. He looked up angrily, only his head was visible from stacks of papers and folders. With his glasses on and an irritated expression on his face, Taurus appeared to be reading police reports, not a book from human lands, the book that he borrowed from that human woman. Helios and anyone passing by would be none the wiser. However the continually growing paperwork would speak otherwise. In fact, Taurus had only finished and filed one report, and that was the strenuously detail, twenty-three page long report; majority written in his own hand writing, report on the recapture of Proteus. Taurus had very little time to read the book, which irked his already ill disposition.

"Got the new interns in," Helios said, tossing a thick manila folder on top of the tallest stack of papers. The paper tower shook. "That Mai Cixelsyd sounds like a real hotty. Peroxide Blond, 120 pounds, five foot four. That girl's gotta have the body of a Nereid."

Taurus plucked the top folder off the pile, both to examine the new interns and to keep paper stack from toppling and turning into a wave of paperwork.

"Mai Cixelsyd? What stock is she from?" Taurus said, flipping through the papers. He held up a folder with "Cixelsyd MaI" written in bold letters across it.

"Dunno, I heard she's one of Cecrops's kids," Helios said.

"Dragon girl?" Taurus said. "I thought his only daughter was just put in his old office".

"I betcha good ol' Polaris showed her her place," Helios chuckled, elbowing Taurus in the side, nearly jarring the thick folder from his massive hands.

"Actually that says 'I am Dyslexic'," a slightly nasal, prepubescent voice said from the opened door. Helios and Taurus turned their startled wide eyed gaze to the figure standing at the door. He stood salute, banging himself in the forehead with his hand.

"Ahkaris Cecrops reporting for duty Chief Taurus!" Ahka said, clacking his heels together. He nearly tipped over. "Most people just call me Ahka."

Helios and Taurus, still facing Ahka, looked at each other from the corner of their eyes, then returned their wide eyed, confused stare at Ahka. Ahka giggled girlishly.

"Umm, I just got expelled from the military," Ahka said.

"Why did you get expelled from the military?" Taurus asked.

"I knocked myself out with a punching bag, and then there was the little incident involving some of the automatons," Ahka admitted. "Aries wanted me court-martialed, but Boreas spoke up on my behalf and said I wasn't army material in the first place, and said I shouldn't be blamed for something we don't even use."

"So he sent you here?" Helios said.

"Yeah," Ahka exclaimed, shaking his head. "To prove myself."

"I thought with dyslexia you read backwards," Taurus spoke up, "not write backwards."

"That's what the doctor thought too," Ahka said. "I guess I'm a rarity. Can't explain it either."

"So what qualifications do you have?" Helios asked, raising an arching flaming eyebrow.

Ahka scratched his jaw, and looked up at the ceiling. "I dunno. What exactly are you looking for? Boreas just sent me here."

Taurus groaned and pressed his forehead into his hand. Boreas was a kind man, a great and fair ruler. He was one of those rulers one reads about in the old texts, texts from times so old, so ancient that they blurred the line between reality and fantasy. Boreas was always trying to lend a helping hand to his people and to other people. Unfortunately, sometimes when Boreas helped one person, it was the expense at others, particularly his subordinates. Most of the subordinates grinned and bared it, taking the job with a smile and a headache.

"Here," Helios said, handing a sheet of paper to Ahka. Ahka unfolded the paper with great gusto.

"Oooh, What iz dis?" he exclaimed. "Are these stores I have to patrol? My first patrol duty?"

"No," Helios stated. "We have our lunches ordered at these stores and you have to pick them up every working day at noon. Do it right, and you'll be promoted."

"Really?" Ahka asked, looking down on the list like a child looking down a coin that was to be tossed into a wishing well.

"Yeah, really, now get out of here. If my hummus is dried out, you'll be demoted to a lunchlady's helper," Helios exclaimed, pointing to the door. Ahka ran out and suddenly peeked into the door.

"So…when am I going to get promoted?" he asked. Helios kicked the door shut. He slapped his hands against each other like a gardener who just finished planting flowers. He chuckled smugly.

"You really did not want to make the lunch run today, didn't you?" Taurus said, sliding the folder into the appropriate drawer.

"Hey, I'm an opportunist," Helios said, huffing out a smoky puff. "I saw an opportunity and I took it."

"You know if he gets lost, you'll be the one to go out and get lunch and find him," Taurus said. "Boreas won't be happy that you lost our intern in the first five minutes he was here."

"I think that guy was long lost before he came here," Helios said. "And if he fails here, I hear they're looking for custodians down in the lobby."

"Lovely," Taurus said, picking up a forming and glancing through it nonchalantly. "Tell me when he comes back; I've got some paper work for him to do."

"But he's dyslexic," Helios said.

"Hey, I'm an opportunist too," Taurus said, smirking.

"At least I could find something he could do with his IQ," Helios said, shrugging. "He's only been here for five minutes and you already go to high of expectations from him."

Helios shrugged and left.

"That's conversation we had was exactly just like the one between Boreas and I about you," Taurus added bluntly.

&&&

Ahka came back three hours later, around two. In the end Helios had to be sent out to find him, but Ahka came back right after Helios left. Taurus tossed Helios's hummus and pita bread into office fridge, figuring Helios would appreciate it when he came back—when ever that was (it happened to be an hour and half later).

"I guess I blew it," Ahka said, sitting down on a paper covered chair. Dourly he bit into a Grecian tortilla wrap. The filling spurted out of the other end and onto the floor.

"Do not worry about it," Taurus said, taking a sip of his now cold green tea. "Do you want to go see the jail part of the precinct after lunch?"

"Oh wow!" Ahka exclaimed, jumping up. He sent a cup of mineral water splashing across the floor. The water soaked into a pile of papers lying on the floor. Taurus groaned.

&&&

"This is where the most notorious of all of New Olympus's criminals are kept, murderers, rapists, crime bosses, and the like, are kept here," Taurus directed to Ahka, still chomping on his tortilla wrap. "Other, less violent criminals, petty thieves, con-artists, drunks, are kept in another larger building on the opposite side of New Olympus."

As Taurus and Ahka passed the jail cells, openings in the wall with thick glasslike windows allowing the guards to peek in on the prisoners, the pacing criminals hissed and jeered. The more violent, mentally unstable convicts banged against the glasslike material. The material was much stronger and clearer than glass. A hammer could be smashed against the material, and it would not shatter. It was so clear that it looked as if there was nothing more than air between the guards and the inmates. However, the material was still five inches thick and the more aggressive prisoners had their cell "screens" electrified with small grids.

Ahka looked at the inmates as if they were displays at the zoo.

"Son, son, how could you do this to your own father?" a hoarse voice, worn with age and hurt, called out over the din of the continuously angry prisoners.

Ahka turned in shock, dropping his wrap on the ground. Taurus moaned, looking more at the intern than at the creator of the voice.

An elderly minotaur, looking very much like Taurus except his mane was iron grey and his muzzle longer and wrinkled, pleaded from a spacious cell. His eyes were grey, filled to brimming with desperation and fatigue. He held his hands, begging.

"Why son? Why?" he begged.

"YOU LOCKED UP YOUR OWN DAD?" Ahka exclaimed. He looked at Taurus. "Man, you really did earn the name Ballcrusher."

"Ballcrusher?" he whimpered in his mind. Taurus winced, his ears pricking. That was a new one, definitely originating from Helios's dictionary.

"He is not my father. My father is dead!" Taurus exclaimed, a wit's end with this intern.

"WHAO! DENYING HIM!" Ahka exclaimed. "HOLY DENIAL!"

"That isn't my father," Taurus said straightly, keeping a dour expression. "That is Proteus. He killed my father."

Ahka's ears flicked. He looked back at Proteus the minotaur, then back at Taurus. Then in a soft, almost angelic voice, Ahka spoke up.

"And stole his body?"

The faux father began to laugh in a voice on the opposite end of the vocal cord spectrum. The minotaur fell backwards, holding his stomach, transforming before hitting the flooring into small, wiry man with yellowish skin. Taurus wanted to smite someone in the head; Proteus, Ahka, or himself. All he managed to do was grit his teeth, the sound of his molars gnashing together was equivalent to rough two sandstones grinding together.

"Oh, dear Taurus, where did you find this one? He's quite a keeper!" Proteus exclaimed, overjoyed at finding something new to torment the Chief of Security. "Please don't tell me dear old Boreas is cutting the funds to this place. He may have to let a few of us prisoners go—most likely the ones who have only killed one citizen of this oh so lovely city."

"Go stick your balls in a winepress, Proteus," Taurus said passing the cell.

Proteus's cell was one of the last cells in the hall. Taurus turned and headed back to the office, his arms behind his back. He did not even risk a glance at Proteus as he passed him. Eagerly, Proteus watch the chief pass, his expression like a puppy watching passersby pass from the glass storefront of a pet store. He howled with laughter, holding his forehead and pointing at the chief.

Ahka gulped, recalling Taurus's nickname after Taurus's little order to Proteus. Then he walked up to the glass and smirked at Proteus. "Yeah, stick your ballz in a winepress!"

Proteus returned the smirk, but his eyes held an edge of realization of patience, as if he was waiting for something to happen. "And you should watch where you step."

"What are you talking about?" Ahka said, his head turned to Proteus, but his body turned away towards Taurus who was leaving the prison hall.

Ahka slipped on his wrap, which was equally slippery from the ranch dressing. He fell backwards, his back hitting the door release button. Taurus was half way down the hall when the alarm sounded. The white lights of the hallway turned off, flashing red lights immediately took their place. Over the din of the alarms and bells, the prisoners began to roar and bang loudly against the glass. Over the uproar, Proteus laughed.

"Holy crap!" Ahka exclaimed, dodging a huge Cyclops foot. The floor shattered underneath the massive foot, revealing the cement underneath. Shards of marble flew through the air under the force in which the foot hit the ground. Ahka screeched bloody murder as a two foot long piece of shrapnel grazed his shoulder slicing through the white sleeve and flame emblazoned leather strap, opening the red flesh.

"HOLY CRAP!" Ahka shouted, ducking underneath Proteus's outstretched hand. "TAURUS!"

"Dammit!" Taurus exclaimed. As if today could not get any worse. "Dammit!"

Taurus's heart battled with his mind. His heart wanted to rush to the intern's side and beat Proteus to an undistinguishable pulp, but his mind, with the decades of training, knew better. Rushing down the hall would leave an opening for Proteus, who in his current state, could smash open other criminal's containments or press the release buttons. Mass chaos would ensue as criminals would rush down the hall and out the opening and overtake the building. As well, there was a possibility that Taurus would meet the same fate as his father and Proteus will escape out into New Olympus, and who would avenge his father and him? And the intern's death? Taurus could not allow that. He wanted at least some satisfaction in not allowing Proteus to escape.

Taurus ran towards the end of the hallway to a large red button covered in a glass shield. Throwing his quarter ton bulk into it, he shattered it, setting off an alarm. A gate at the end of the hallway screeched and began to lower. Electric force fields formed around buttons, windows, and doorways. Taurus's shoulder was ripped open and bleeding.

"Dammit," he said, but it was better than shredding his hand. He wanted that in good shape to beat Proteus to a bloody pulp. The damage to his shoulder was minimal; nothing a few minutes spent in the infirmary could heal.

Taurus looked over at the towering Proteus with same satisfaction on his face as Proteus gives to him when Proteus constantly reminds Taurus of his father's death at his hands. Grimacing in a half sneer half grin, sucking his breath through his teeth, Taurus cracked his knuckles approaching the behemoth.

"You killed my father, now you must pay," Taurus snarled.

Proteus laughed, staring down at the minotaur. He held the diminutive intern up the collar of his shirt. Ahka was still alive and kicking, literally. "Now, now Taurus, we shouldn't loose our tempers now, should we? Mistakes could be made."

"Oh mistakes have been made," Taurus roared, "BY YOU!"

Taurus pulled out his gun and held it up at Proteus.

"Don't shoot!" Ahka exclaimed, holding his arms up. The intern slipped out of his shirt, leaving his uniform hanging in the Cyclops's hand. He ran behind Proteus. "Now shoot!"

Taurus barely had his finger on the trigger when the ceiling collapsed under extreme force. Proteus was buried under a pile of building materials. Positioned on the top of the heap, standing straight up, was Talos. The golden man glanced down at his superior with narrow red eyes.

"Are you all right Chief?" Talos asked in his emotionless, deep voice.

"I've felt better," Taurus said, rolling his gray shoulder.

An arm rose from the rubble and grabbed hold of the gold golem's ankle. With a crack, Talos's foot was ripped clean off. The automaton toppled, nearly crushing the much abused intern. There was a two inch space between the bulk of Talos's body and Ahka, who had flattened himself against the wall.

Proteus barely had time to gloat, in fact he barely had time to smile and acknowledge the second time he destroyed Talos. Five hundred pounds of bull minotaur collided with the soft, wide underbelly of Proteus. Taurus hit Proteus head on, propelling himself with his powerful legs. Proteus may have been a massive Cyclops, but he was physically unfit, in shapeshifter and Cyclops form; Proteus relied more on his slyness than his brawn; which was going to prove to be his downfall. Minotaurs, despite being half the size of a Cyclops, were equally powerful. In fact, they were incredibly strong. To top that, minotaurs were surprisingly fast and built for abuse; their bodies were heavy set and broad for a reason. The impact would break a normal New Olympian's neck or leave a few broken bones at the least. Taurus did nothing more than jar his sore shoulder. He suffered worse when he rolled down the pile of rubble from Talos's entrance.

Proteus was reeling backward, straight into his cell. It could not have been better planned.

"NOW! AHKA!" Taurus roared, lifting himself up. "HIT THE BUTTON!"

Before Proteus could rise, Ahka slammed his left hand on the button. The screen rose, sealing the killer once more into his cell.

Taurus rose, breathing heavily as if from a strenuous morning jog. Whirling and turning, Talos turned his head and tried to rise. Ahka stood off to the side, trying to staunch the slice on his wounded arm which hung limply at his side.

"Chief Taurus," Ahka spoke up as the din of the alarms died down, "I don't like this job anymore. Do you think they have openings for custodians?"

&&&

"Chief Taurus, you look worse for wear," Boreas said as the minotaur entered his chambers. Next to numerous bandages, a layer of dust from the ceiling, and dried blood, Taurus sported a matching set of bags under his eyes. "I heard Proteus escaped again."

"He did, he did not get far this time. The hallway gate was an excellent idea," Taurus answered straightly. "It kept him inside, but nearly cost us the new intern's life and Talos is in the repair shop again. Speaking of which, how is the new intern doing?"

"Well, he was almost court-martialed again, but we settled on a small disciplinary action, and food is only allowed in the lunch room. We won't have buttons any more right by the prisoner's cells, and Talos may get 'pimped up' as the intern put it," Boreas spoke up.

"Good," Taurus said, for lack of words. He was too tired to say anything else. Taurus had spent twelve hours in the infirmary and another twenty-four hours filling out paper work, and six hours cleaning up the mess. He had not been home for almost two days and had not slept with the exception of an unsuspected hour long nap in which he woke up on his desk with paper sticking to his forehead with his drool. "Sir, if that is all there, I have work to finish back at security head quarters."

"No Taurus, that is not why I called you here," Boreas said. Inside Taurus moaned, but outside, his shoulders slackened. Boreas took up a hand held computer. He looked down at the screen. "Taurus, do you realize since you started working here, first as an intern and now as Chief of Security, you've only taken one week off, and that was during your father's funeral. In fact, you work an average of twelve hours a day, all week, and all year. You don't even take holidays off."

"Sir, it's my job, someone has to do it," Taurus answered.

"Isn't this a little extreme, Taurus?" Boreas said.

"Sir, it's my job."

"Taurus you're making it appear that your job is the only thing you've got going for you," Boreas said. "Don't you have any hobbies? Anything else in life?"

"Sir, this is my life. I'm not sure what you are getting to, Boreas. If you are suggesting I quit my job, what would I have to live for? Who will watch Proteus?" Taurus said. "NO ONE in this city knows how he works as well as I do. If he escapes, who's going to go after him? Who will know it's him and not just another New Olympian?"

"Taurus, Taurus," Boreas said. "I'm not going to make you quit your job, but have you looked at yourself lately? You're a wreck. When was the last time you've actually taken a vacation? Or actually did something fun."

"Sir, I do not take vacations. I do not need a break," Taurus said with as much seriousness as he could muster in his state.

"You do," Boreas said. "I've been looking into your files Taurus and taking notes."

"Notes sir? With the exception of three escapes by Proteus, two in which were not my fault, my record is spotless," Taurus spoke up.

"Which is why you are being rewarded," Boreas said typing into the computer.

"Rewarded?" Taurus squeaked. "With what?"

"A vacation. I insisted that you take that month long a while ago, and you have just been holding it off. Well, I've been adding up the days you have been suppose to take off, plus the days that you work when you shouldn't have, and all your overtime, the paid and unpaid, and compiled this; you have the total of eight months of vacation. I am not making you take an eight month hiatus from work, but you will be 'coerced' to take a two month long break starting tonight. The whole board decided on it," Boreas said.

"But Boreas—"

"Taurus, let's face it, you need a break. All you've done through all these years is mull over your father's murder. Do you even remember who you are? Or who you were? Do you even remember what your family was like before your father's death? Do you even remember what your life was like when your mother was still alive?" Boreas asked. "Do you even realize that you had a life before you became Chief of Security? Taurus, we're worried about you."

"Sir, I am fine. In fact, I'll be even better after I clean up this little mess and get a few hours of sleep. I will come in work later tomorrow. Now, if you just excuse me, I have a job to get back to," Taurus said.

"Taurus," Boreas spoke up, "you're not going any where but home. Give me your card."

"What?" Taurus exclaimed.

"Give me your card, and if you don't, I'll put this down as disobedience on your spotless record," Boreas said, holding out his hand. "Now, your ID card."

Gruffly, Taurus handed his card over to Boreas. Boreas slid the card through the computer and handed it back to the minotaur.

"There, your card has been deactivated. You can't enter the building or access any security files or computers. In fact, if you are even caught in the building, we'll put you under house arrest. Taurus, I'm serious. It's not the end of the world, you're just going to be on a paid vacation," Boreas said.

"But sir, who is going to head security? You are not honestly suggesting that Helios can do it on his own," Taurus said.

"Don't worry, he'll have help. We've got Kiron there, he's a level head man, and one of the guards from the other prison is coming up," Boreas said. "If you behave Taurus, we'll send some paperwork your way in the last two weeks."

Taurus grumbled.

"Here," Boreas said, handing Taurus a few sheets of paper.

"What are these?" Taurus exclaimed.

"A six month long membership to a spa and a list of things you can do while you're on vacation," Boreas answered.

"You're kidding? Why in Hades would I want to paint my walls? Look through albums? Walk along the beach? Who the Hades came up with these?" Taurus roared.

"Taurus, they're suggestions. You don't have to take them, but the suggestion you better take is gather up your stuff and go back to your apartment and sleep in. I'll see you in two months," Boreas said, gravely, glaring down at the minotaur with sky blue eyes. Taurus felt incredibly small and helpless.

"But sir…"

"Two months, Taurus. Two months."

&&&

Later that night…

"Hello Taurus, I haven't seen you in two days," said Hekate, the elderly gorgon landlady, as Taurus stormed pass.

"Trust me, you will be seeing me more often for the next two months," Taurus answered gruffly. He didn't intend sound mean to Hekate, but he was in one of his funks, and she knew that. Maybe tomorrow, he'll stop by and talk to her for a bit. The decision made him a little better. Maybe she had something him to do.

Taurus unlocked the door to his apartment. With the door opened to a slit, he stood there, contemplating, before finally open the door to his darkened apartment. The lights illuminated the room immediately as he entered. He tossed his satchel down at the door onto the beige carpeting and threw his cape onto a beige chair striped with narrow tan lines. He kicked his boots off and removed his chest plate, tossing that onto a matching sofa.

Achelous, his calico koi, splashed around in its tank, its mouth puckering desperately.

"Yeah, I know," Taurus said affably to the starving fish. He sprinkled a fat pinch of fish food on the surface. Achelous attacked the flakes with the ferocity of a chimera tearing into a side of lamb. Taurus managed a smile at the sight of his fish. The fish contentedly burped a bubble and sunk to the bottom of the tank, resting among the aquarium plants and sand.

Taurus scratched behind his head, pulling loose his pony tail. He stretched, cracking his bones and loosening tense muscles. His stomach grumbled as it was jostled awake with the stretch. Taurus headed to the kitchen. From the fridge, he pulled out numerous take out boxes, and ended up discarding those. Finally, he removed some fennel, onions, a few lemons, and grape leaves. Stuff grape leaves sounded extremely good right now. In fact, anything sounded good.

He could never make stuffed grape leaves like his mother though. His father couldn't make them either. They just did not have the talent for rolling grape leaves. It was their big fat minotaur fingers his mother, a Dryad, would joke. The rolls always ended up looking like 'garbage bags'. His father and him simply balled the grape leaves around the filling and cook them in the stock.

Taurus sighed as he chopped the fennel bulbs up and tossed it into a skillet with the onion and some olive oil.

After his mother died it was only Taurus and his father, and after his father died, it was only Taurus. It was a sad lonely life.

"My life is not that lonely, is it?" Taurus asked, leaning on the counter as vegetables sizzled beside him. "Right Achelous?"

Taurus didn't expect the fish to answer.

And it didn't.


	3. Pizza, Popcorn, and CSI

_I don't own Taurus and I am quoting the first lines from The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break. _

**Pizza, Popcorn, and CSI**

"**The Minotaur sits on an empty pickle bucket blowing smoke through bullish nostrils. He sits near the dumpster on the dock of the kitchen at Grub's Rib, smoking and watching Joe Joe, the dishwasher, dance on the thin strip of crumbling asphalt that begins three steps down at the base of the dock, runs the length of the building's backside and stops abruptly at the overgrown back, thick with jimson weed, honeysuckle, and scraggly pine, leading down the interstate. It's hot, and through the haze and the treetops the Minotaur can just make out a piece of the billboard advertising the restaurant; **_Next Exit_**. The Minotaur doesn't like to smoke, but smokes anyway, smokes menthol because he likes them even less…"**

Taurus sat on his couch, one hoofed foot propped up on his coffee table, his other arm hanging behind the couch. He read the book one handed, since it was small in New Olympian standards, just a little bigger than his hand. He held the book open with his thumb, supporting its spine with his other two fingers. He had already read it twice, but was reading through it a third time; just to take it all in. The magazines proved to be nothing more than papers filled with the trivial pursuits of humans and advertisements. Though he did mildly enjoy a few of the columns, mostly in amusement about human society and the high price the humans pay for status, fashion, and boyfriends. Taurus enjoyed several belly laughs, the first he enjoyed in a long time. They hurt.

It was quiet in his apartment. Most New Olympians apartments were sound proof, with the exception of the slum apartments hidden in the shadows of the larger, grander buildings, keeping the racket from noisy neighbors in their apartments and the noise pollution of the streets outside. But it was too quiet for Taurus's like, especially since he was use to the hustle and bustle of the security precinct. He did not like reading in peace and quiet, even though it could do him some good.

He had tried turning the plasma screen, a large massive thing that took up the middle third of one wall. It was bought mostly for looks. Taurus was not particularly one for home decoration, in fact he scoffed at the council to-do list and the "repaint your apartment" bit, currently that list is resting at the bottom of Taurus's recycling bin, but he knew what made a home a home, and a screenless blank wall did not make a home a home. Maybe it was there as well for him to show off, he was sure to whom, but it was just there. Not only was Taurus not one for home improvement, he was not one for some of the shows. Lengthy dramas with love triangles that resembled octagons or maybe N-gons, left him confused and bored. He rarely ever watched the screen, and when he did, it was at night, mostly news broadcasts. These feminine dramas, shown mostly in the morning, were always in the middle of some huge ordeal that to understand one needed to watch previous episodes. In both the real life and the surreal life, he never could deeply involve himself into romance. Sellers on the screen were mildly amusing. Taurus could read the faces of the sellers, see through their fake overexcitement and fervent enthusiasm.

A few years ago someone (perhaps Boreas, or maybe it was former date) suggested that Taurus get a pet. They suggested getting a bird, a pretty little birdy (yes, it was a former date) that would sing in the morning when he woke up and sing when he came home at night. Taurus bought Achelous, a golden, rusty, ivory koi instead of a pretty little birdy. Not only was the upkeep on the fish simple, it could go days with out feed, which with Achelous's behavior, one could not tell, and it didn't sing. Now, as Taurus read his book in complete silence, he wished he had something that would make a little constant noise. Achelous blubbed in his tank and watched Taurus with hungry interest.

"You just ate," Taurus said. "Don't look at me like that. I should have got a bird."

Taurus had tried to turn his wavecatcher (a radio) on, but it was set to police broadcasts. He immediately turned it off and settled on opening the window so that sound could leak in.

It had taken in a full hour before he was comfortable enough to reread the book again. In fact, he was so comfortable that the thing called a cigarette sounded excellent right now to soothe his agitation, since M the Minotaur in the novel seemed to like smoke them, the menthol kind (whatever menthol was, it contained the root word menthe, which was related to mint, which might mean the cigarettes tasted good) when he was stressed. From his deduction, Taurus guessed a cigarette was similar to the pipes that some New Olympians, like his father, smoked.

Fifteen minutes later and nine pages in, there was a knock on the door.

"Door's unlocked," Taurus stated, still reading the book.

The door slowly creaked open. First a wave of blue hair poured from the opening, and then a small face, with a pearlish sheen to the skin and eyes as large as scallop shells with pupils the color of lagoon water. Taurus could imagine the white grains of sand beneath the blue vastness of the eyes. A naiad maiden, one he'd never seen before.

"Hi," a voice chirped in a forced tininess. It sounded like a little mouse, or better yet, a small ocean bird, trying to whisper into a sea cavern. "Hi, um, Chief Taurus. I just moved in three days ago."

It sounded as if the voice was on the edge of an hysterical, screeching breakdown.

"Ah, you moved into Tityus's old apartment. I saw the crates out there earlier in the week. And please call me Taurus, I'm off duty and you don't work for me for me either," Taurus laughed. He noticed the naiad wince, despite the fact he barely saw all of her. "Come on in. And who might you be?"

"I am Calypso Cestus, Taurus" she said, blushing navy blue in the cheeks.

"Calypso Cestus? Why does that name sound familiar?" Taurus said, scratching his chin. He slid the book between the seat cushion of his couch when he noticed the naiad lower her head. "Wait a minute, weren't you suppose to be one the interns? One of the six Helios lost?"

There was a gurgle from the veil of blue hair. "Yes."

"Why the Hades did you quit?" Taurus asked. "I read in your paperwork you were doing great. Great aim and great abilities, though just a little slow using them."

"I saw the prisoners; they said mean things to me. They kept saying 'NICE ASS NICE ASS' to me," Calypso murmured. Taurus's ears lowered.

"Calypso, some of those men have been locked in there cells for almost fifty years. None of them have seen a female for years. And besides, they say the same thing to me too, all the time," Taurus said.

"I'm guessing that guy Rion didn't get the job, he was the last guy remaining," Calypso said. "I heard everybody else quit."

"Nope, from what Helios was saying Rion got into a dispute with Helios and quit," Taurus said. "A real shame, any of you would have done great. You should see the ding-a-ling of an intern that is there now. Got there by default because there were not other interns to choose from."

"I'm trying again soon," Calypso spoke up. "I'm working on my self defense at the Amazon Gymnasium. Just let those prisoners try and cop a feel."

"The prisoners are in special cells, they can't reach out and touch you. Just try wax ear plugs next time. They work like an evil eye charm," Taurus said. "Or tell them too bad they can't kiss it since they're locked up. Reminding them of where they are and what they can't do is a pretty good way of putting them in their place."

Calypso held her tiny hand up to her mouth to smother a girlish giggle. "Everyone tells me you're a real hardass. I guess they were wrong."

Taurus could smack himself in the head. He wondered who was included in this everyone

"How bout you sit down? I'll get us something to drink. You like freshly made pomegranate juice?" Taurus asked getting up. Calypso fell back startled as Taurus stood up. He had a good two and half feet on her, and she was mostly like in the one hundred pound weight region, barely a fifth of his weight. She did not look in fear at his towering form, but in awe, marveling perhaps?

"I like pomegranate juice," she said hypnotically, just staring at his shoulders, then working her eyes down his back and focusing on another, well shaped, well defined part of his anatomy. _Among other things_ she thought. _He really did earn that nickname. _

As Taurus headed to his eating area, Calypso plopped down on his couch, between the two cushions. She crossed her legs and rested her tiny hands on her lap. She took in Taurus's apartment, as well as the heat emanating from where he sat.

"You like the color beige?"

"Yeah," Taurus answered as he sliced a pomegranate in half, exposing its bloody, red "seeds". The pomegranate was one of the few fruits that have not been genetically altered to become a completely new fruit, fruit that could flourish on the island and support its population. It was still genetically altered however, made to thrive in rocky soil, on little water, and in little space. The one Taurus was juicing was huge, probably the size of a melon, and "seedless". In place of the small white seeds of ancient pomegranates, there were just red, solid juicy jewels.

"Beige is nice. You know, it's just like the sand in the ocean. It's a nice base for all sorts of colors."

"Uh-huh," Taurus responded, crushing the fruit.

"All the pretty fish and colorful coral form on the sand, adding color too it. You know, if you put a few colorful toss pillows on your couch, added a nice floor rug, and put a fringe on your curtains, your apartment would look great. I mean it looks nice now, but it would look even nicer with a tinge of color. All the colors go with beige," Calypso said.

"Uh-huh," Taurus said, pouring the juice into glasses. He was not irked because he was not listening to the naiad. He went to his freezer unit to remove some ice and took some candied lemon peel from the cupboard. He added these to the glasses and brought them over to the living room. He handed a glass to Calypso.

"Thank you," she said, daintily taking a sip.

Taurus sat down in a chair nearby. He sipped contentedly.

"Aren't you supposed to be at work?" Calypso asked. "Not to be rude Chief, I mean, Taurus, just Taurus."

"I'm on vacation," Taurus answered. He finished the remnants of his glass in one gulp.

"Really?" Calypso asked, fiddling with the half-full glass between her fingers. "How long?"

"Two months."

"Two months. Why would you want to take a vacation that long?" Calypso asked.

"Who said I 'wanted to'?" Taurus said.

"You were forced to?" Calypso asked.

"You can say that. It's the price you pay for protecting the city of New Olympus," said Taurus. He leaned back in his chair, propping his feet up on the chair.

"Oh," Calypso said. It was silent for a moment as Taurus reflected and Calypso thought, looking down at the sand colored floor. Suddenly, she jerked up and shook in her seat. "Ow, what's this?"

Taurus pricked awake as Calypso removed his book from the seat cushions.

"You lost a book here." she said, looking at the cover. "What's a cigarette?"

"Nothing you should worry about," Taurus said, snatching the book out of her hands. "A friend loaned it to me."

"Really? I've never seen a book like that before. It's not made like our books. Is it some new style?" she asked.

"Yes, it's some new style," Taurus said.

"Really? What's cigarette?" Calypso asked, suspiciously. "And who's this friend? Because my old roommate was a book dealer, and I know a thing or too about books, and that is not a New Olympian book."

Calypso did not appear to one interested in books, let alone know a thing about books and where they originate. She definitely would not have made a great intern, a great officer perhaps, but not a great intern. She was too smart and too damn perceptive to be an intern.

"I borrowed it, okay?" Taurus said, shielding the book cover.

"Was it from that Elisa woman?" Calypso asked. She did not sneer when she said "Elisa", in fact, she just said woman, not human. Taurus felt slightly at ease. She was curious, not downright hostile, to the origin of the book.

"No," Taurus answered. "I came across it, during a certain situation and ended up with it. I was not even going to take it, but I felt I could learn something from it."

"So, what's a cigarette?" Calypso asked.

"Not sure," Taurus said. "I think it's like a disposable pipe. You smoke it and toss out the 'butts', that's all I could comprehend."

"Smoking is gross," Calypso said, wrinkling her tiny nose. "How could you read a book and not be able to understand it?"

"Some things I did not understand at first, but I think I got them farther on into the book. Some things I simply do not get. But the story line, if you could ignore the human terminology, was pretty understandable. It was a good read," Taurus said.

"Oh, I don't like reading. I had to listen to my old roommate go on and on about his books and how to tell how much they were worth. It killed me to listen to him drone," Calypso said.

"I have to return this to the human lands. You mustn't tell ANYONE that I have this or had anything human made in my possession. Do I make that clear?" Taurus said. He reached out and put his hand on Calypso's shoulder. His massive hand engulfed her shoulder. He could have easily crushed her shoulder, but the move was not meant to scare her, which it didn't. It was more meant to represent the secret between them, something they shared.

"Very clear, Sir," she said, looking up.

"Good."

Taurus took his hand off her shoulder and set the book down on a table.

"So when are you going to return it?" Calypso asked.

"Soon, I think I will be leaving tomorrow," Taurus said. He appeared to be searching for something. "I don't know how long I will be gone."

"Are the human lands dangerous?"

"They can be," Taurus answered. "If you get rid of the dirt and grime and change the denizens, their city, New York, is not so different from New Olympus."

"New York? So there was and Old York, just like there was Mount Olympus?" Calypso asked. "So they had to leave their lands for some reason right, since they made a new place? Just like we did."

"You ask too many questions and jump to too many conclusions," Taurus said. He scratched his chin. "I'm not sure, really, I'm not. In fact, New York is on a land I never seen before, a completely new land."

"Oooh," Calypso said. "I wish I could go. Just to see it."

"That may become a reality," Taurus said, digging through some papers. "Not soon, but in a few years. But don't count on it. Ah!"

Taurus pulled out the spa tickets. He held the tickets a few inches from Calypso's face.

"I will be gone for a few days, and I need someone to take care of Achelous over there in his tank, until I return. As well as keep my little trip secret, all right?" Taurus said.

"Of course. I can do it," Calypso said.

"Good." Taurus handed the tickets to her. "These are membership to some spa. They're yours; consider them payment, because I'm never going to use them."

Calypso tucked the tickets into her shirt. "Dinner would have been better."

Taurus chuckled. This Calypso may not have been into books, but she definitely read like one. "Want to go get lunch? Consider it an apartment warming gift."

"Let me get my cloak," she said, and was off, quicker than Artemis's arrows.

Achelous splashed around in his tank excitedly.

"Not you, you fool," Taurus said, crossing his arms.

&&&

_The next day…_

Gently Taurus packed the books, plus a few other necessities into a satchel. Early, Taurus chewed over whether wearing his uniform or not. Finally and boldly, he changed into a brown harness and kilt with a gold border. It was close enough to his uniform to make him comfortable, but different enough so that Taurus could mingle in with his fellow Olympians without them stepping aside. Unfortunately, Taurus thought, staring at the mirror in his sleeping quarters, his reputation outranked his uniform. He would have to change bodies before clothing before people would finally stop taking him so seriously.

As he prepared to leave his apartment, he tapped on the tank of Achelous's tank. The fish immediately appeared, mouth flapping, from the plants on the side.

"Good fish," he said, with that he spread a fat pinch of food across the surface.

Taurus was leaving later than planned. It took him two hours before he finally found his extra apartment key to give to Calypso. He never had anyone look after his apartment before, and he completely lost track of where the key went. She appeared almost immediately, the same exact speed in which Achelous appeared, at her door when Taurus knocked, and in a sea green nightgown, one strap hanging downing, exposing a pale shoulder speckled with blue freckles. Taurus gave her the key, thanked her, and left. She looked mad when he headed down the hallway back to his room.

Taurus head went down the elevator eight flights to the lobby. Hekate was not there, but he could hear her voice outside near the entrance. In typical pompous gorgon fashion, she was overseeing someone, advising them where to place something.

"Now put that shrub over there, Andromedios," she said.

"My name's not Andromedios, it's Orion, Rion for short," someone argued back. By the stress in his voice, he appeared to be lifting something. "That's my stage name, and I don't work there anymore!"

"Look, for the incredible amount I am paying you, you settle with what I am calling you. For some extra gold, you could do that lovely little number involving the collar," Hekate cooed. "I'm not stingy with my money."

There was a mumble. Taurus could see another minotaur, smaller and brown, carrying a large, flowering olive on one shoulder. The minotaur was wearing the muddy blue garb of a gardener or park worker. He looked mad through his long brown, pampered bangs. His eyes drooped in defeat, but the pupils held the spark of defiance.

"Old bag, this is what I get for going back to school, and quitting two good paying jobs," the other minotaur mumbled, settling the olive into a freshly dug hole. This Rion may have been the Rion Calypso was talking about.

As the minotaur, Rion, bent over to plant the shrub, Hekate, slid money between Rion's jacket and his baggy working pants, right into his undergarments. Rion jumped up as if he was stung by a bee. Hekate sniggered like a female one twentieth her age.

"STOP DOING THAT!" he exclaimed. "I'll take one lump sum at the end of this, thank you. No small down payments, okay."

Taurus laughed the whole way to his hovercraft. So there were people who were in worse situations because of their reputations.

In fact, he didn't stop laughing until New Olympus was long gone on the radar from the dashboard of his hovercraft.

&&&

It was not a particularly good day for Rachel Wesley. In fact, it was not a particularly good month for Rachel Wesley. The incident in the alleyway behind the store was nothing more than an irritating memory, and she would have simply brushed it off as if it was nothing, like New York City brushes off every little dispute that happens on its streets, except whenever she was peeved this month, all she could think about was what made her angry, and that would come up. Sometimes it was the first thing, sometimes it was the last thing, and a few times it came up in the middle of her train of thought. The only thing that remained constant, she became more miffed when she thought of it.

The note was mulled over as some mysterious letter from some tall, dark stranger, not in a romantic way tall dark stranger, for the first day, before finally it was tossed out. The name Taurus could only make her more irked. It was some joke, some little code name for some, little inside, intricate game some people like to play on the majority people. All she could think of was "the Zodiac Book Stealer".

She had gone down to the comic book store across the street two days after her books were taken. Confusedly and bemusedly the clerks at the store looked at her as she told them about the incident. Finally, after getting through to them, they took her to a back room allowing her to see their whole stock of costumes. Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, and numerous other movie and television series outfits, filled the room, a room even larger than the comic book store. Rachel felt pathetically small.

"I'm looking for something with horns," Rachel said, chewing on her thumbnail. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was the only movies she had ever seen in their entirety, and she was only moderately knowledgeable with Star Wars. "Big horns."

"We've got Viking outfits, do you think the guy who jumped was dressed like Eric the Red?" one guy joked.

"No, he had a laser gun, and horns," Rachel snapped. _Among other things. _But she said nothing else, since she already knew they were holding in their laughter.

"Dude, is anything that has horns and carries a laser gun?" the one clerk asked the other.

"No, I don't think so. You sure this even happen?" the other clerk asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. Some creep in a costume jumped me in an alley way," Rachel stated.

"Well, what makes you think it was us?" the one clerk exclaimed.

"I don't know, maybe it was because last year for Halloween when three of your employees pranced into our store dressed up as King Arthur, Patsy, and the Black Knight and had a huge sword fight, knocking over book shelves? This sounds like a prank people like you pull. You're lucky we didn't call the cops," Rachel said.

"Look we can't help you. Why didn't you call the cops in the first place anyway instead coming here? Or did you miss us?" the one clerk asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh just forget it," Rachel said, brushing them off. She stormed out of the door.

She had just returned back to her apartment when work called earlier, two cashiers called off and Lisa needed her to come in. Earlier that day Rachel received her anatomy exam back. To her dismay, she failed it by three points. The damn professor would not bump her up to a D, which would greatly help her. Biology was not looking any better. She was barely making a C there. She did not even think she was going to be able to make a 2.5 this semester. Some moron on her chewed her out on her on campus job. Something about his transcripts request, meanwhile she was working in the meal plan office. She could not get it through to him that this was the cafeteria, she dealt with food. She hung up twice on the guy, who repeatedly called back, and did not answer the phone which resulted in her manager chewing her out as well. Work at the book store was not any better. She had a veterinary chemistry to study for next week, and wanted to get a head start. If she made a B in that class, she might be able to make the grade and avoid academic probation. The book store was ridiculously busy. One of the cashiers who called off walked passed the store window with her boyfriend, and Rachel was ready to flip. There were several calls for the new Harry Potter book which does not come out for another month, someone tried to return a book from another bookstore, and another person spilled cappuccino all over the map section. Rachel had no time to study.

_Here I am, a junior in college barely making the grades in my seventh semester, working two jobs and dealing all day with idiots and now I'm off to my apartment to a senile old lady and her yapping rat-dogs. All I need is another phone call at three in the morning to come change a light bulb and this day would be the spokesperson for shitty days everywhere_ Rachel thought as she stumbled out of the back of the store. In one arm she carried her dinner, cold with the bag leaking grease, and in the other arm she carried a plastic bag with her college book, folders with the pockets filled to brimming with notes, work books, and notepads.

Her head and feet were thumping. At least she had no classes tomorrow. She was looking forward to spring break. She was not lucky like her fellow class mates who could afford (finicially and academically) to go down to Cancun, but she had a week off, which was better than nothing. She might be able to improve her class standing in Animal Anatomy and get that huge term paper finished on her thesis about the therapeutic effects of massage on animals. Her mother told her that bad streaks always come to an end if you let them come to an end. Rachel was hoping to end this especially nasty streak next week.

She could not wait to go home, to the apartment above a garage. It was one of the few things she was thankful to receive this city. The studio apartment was on the property of an elderly lady named Mrs. Brigleston whose late husband earned a healthy sum of money in the fifties and sixties in the stock market. Since she already had money, or was completely unaware of what an apartment costs in New York City, Mrs. Brigleston charged a cheap price for the apartment, nestled above a large, empty garage that once held the half dozen or so of her husband's classic cars, now sold. Mrs. Brigleston's grandson used to "crash" at the apartment until he moved down to Miami, so the apartment was already furnished. When Mrs. Brigleston found out that Rachel was majoring in veterinary care, Rachel immediately became the sole protector of Mrs. Brigleston's five purebred Pomeranians and cockatiel, Coco, which thus lowered her bills. Rachel did not have the heart to tell the elderly lady that she was majoring in the care and treatment of large animals like horses and zoo animals. Rachel just had to pay for her internet and her own groceries with the occasional payment for electricity. Unfortunately there was a catch, as well as being Mrs. Brigleston's personal vet, she was also her personal maid, delivery girl, and chauffer. But it was a small price to pay.

Rachel stepped down the one step onto the street. She groaned as her head was bombarded by the sounds of New York. On cue her plastic bag burst in mid groan. Papers scattered, books hit the mud.

"Dammit!" Rachel exclaimed. She kneeled down to gather her materials. Her notes began to soak up the mud, turning tan. She grimaced holding up a heavy book, dripping in slime. She was not going to get any money back when she returned this. Just perfect. Just freaking perfect.

"Here," a voice, deep and extremely masculine said from above her. She was startled, but not frightened. It was weird, but she was not intimidated by the voice. If a guardian spirit sounded like anything, it would have sounded like that. "These are yours."

A hand held a stack of books, holding them at a tilt just a few inches away from Rachel's face. One of her notebooks was on top.

"Thank yoOOO! OH MY GOD," she exclaimed, starting out graciously and quickly turning horrified.

Rachel reached up to take the stack of books, but then she realized on the spines of the books read The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break and the thick stacks of books were being held in place by a large, gray three fingers, lit up by the light above her. She could just make out the tip of a muzzle and two grey eyes set in heavy, curving brows. She could barely discern what appeared to be the beginning of a black Mohawk, set between two long, wicked looking horns tipped in gold.

Rachel jumped up quickly. She pointed a finger at the figure, half hidden in the shadows. "You're the bastard who stole my books! Well let me tell you buddy, this is one very sick little joke you're playing on me! And I don't find it amusing one bit what so ever! I'll advising getting lost before I call the cops on your sorry pathetic ass!"

"I didn't 'steal' your books. I made it evidently clear in my note that I meant to borrow your books for further my personal research, Miss Rachel Wesley," the figure said straightly, spitting her name out, it ran off his tongue as if he was trying sputter out a sour tasting piece of food. He just sounded a bit peeved, more so at her accusations than at her reaction.

"How do you know my name?" Rachel spat and jumped back.

"I found it on your ID card," the figure stated. He crossed his brawny arms, her books still tightly held in his hands.

"My ID card? Wait a minute, you went through my purse! Why the hell did you go through my purse? And who and what the hell are you?" Rachel screamed, pointing a figure.

There was a stomp, a click akin almost to a horse hoof hitting the bricks. A booted foot, too domed to be human and proportionately small compared to the body of the figure, appeared in the light. The figure shifted as he moved into light, allowing her to give a fully lit view of himself underneath the sickly yellow light.

There was two feet of space between Rachel and a seven and a half foot behemoth. She barely came to the center of his chest. Rachel looked up at two angry, round eyes and lowered brows. She was nose to snout tip to a minotaur. Unlike her book, where the minotaur was an unwieldy combination of man and beast, this minotaur was a perfect, well molded mixture of both. Short grey furcovered his body, a blatantly obvious muscular, powerful, and effective body. He stood straightly and powerfully, not one part of him was disproportionate to another part, everything was fitted perfectly together. He was not bent over because his head was too heavy, nor did he stare at her with completely black eyes, dull with stupidity. Despite the stoicism seen in cattle, the lack of expression in their placid faces, this minotaur was obviously P-I-S-S-E-D. There was a snort, a mist flew into Rachel's face.

"That's not a costume," she managed to get out before she fell forward into a dead faint.

&&&

Taurus managed to catch Rachel before she fell face forward into the alleyway. She only managed to get her knees dirty as her legs dragged uselessly underneath her body. Rachel's head and arms draped like wilted plants in Taurus's arms. He dropped her books and she dropped hers when she fell.

"Dammit," he said, trying to hold onto the human which was really hard to hold onto. It was like trying to get your hands on dead eels to butcher. They were dead and not moving, but their slimy skin and rubbery bodies provided little to hold onto. Taurus wrapped his one arm around Rachel's waist, holding onto her as he tried to gather the fallen books. He was just picking up the final page when the door opened. "Dammit!"

He darted into the shadows again. He leaned back behind a dumpster, his hand cupped over Rachel's mouth.

"Rachel? Are you still out here?" Lisa called, stepping down onto the street. Her heels clicked loudly on the stone. "Rachel? I thought I heard something."

There was a click and the door was locked. The clack of Lisa's heels echoed in the distance.

Damn.

Rachel was out. Taurus tried shaking the woman awake, but it failed, she was out cold. It did not look like she had the keys either. That other woman locked the door, so Taurus could not leave her into the store like he did earlier. He could not exactly leave her in the alleyway.

Damn.

Taurus growled.

He slung Rachel's limp form over his broad shoulder and carried her books under his one arm to his hidden hovercraft.

&&&

Rachel came to about fifteen minutes later. She could feel wind, cool, strong, and burning through her hair and against her face. There was a strong leather smell and there was a feeling of leather between her cheek and fingertips. At first she thought she was in her grandfather's leather cushion convertible, driving through the country side with the top down and she had just fallen asleep. But then she realized the leather seats of her grandfather's car were not this pliable, or warm, or this furry—

"PUT ME DOWN!" Rachel exclaimed. She banged her fists against the minotaur's back. It was just as effective as punching her grandfather's seat cushions, only a little more painful, for her. "Put me down now!"

"Can you survive a five hundred foot drop?" came a straightforward question. The voice was so straightforward and bland, Rachel did not know if the minotaur was being serious or deathly sarcastic.

Rachel stopped thrashing She realized she was hanging on the minotaur's shoulder, slung over as it as she was some princess getting carried off by a brutish ogre. Underneath her she could see the River and the lights of office buildings and cars. The honking horns and shouts of people were muffled. Rachel's limbs stiffened in fear then slackened in realization. The limbs that fought to free herself from her beastly captor, soon found themselves wrapped around his head and upper body. There was a muffled sound from his mouth; her arm was round his muzzle, the bend of her elbow was practically gagging him. Her other hand was wrapped around his one horn, pulling his head to one side. The strange vehicle they were riding on, it looked like a wave rider, tilted.

"Don't drop me, don't drop me! I didn't mean anything I said! Don't drop me!" she cried out.

A large hand peeled her arm from his mouth. The vehicle straightened. "I don't mean any harm to you human. This whole entire I meant to cause you no harm. You either passed out or verbally attacked me. I should have left you in the alleyway for the rats, not just the rodent kind either. Either straightened up, or I will drop you."

"Where are you taking me?" Rachel squawked, loosening her terrified grasp on the minotaur's head, but not much.

"To your home, it's this way, isn't it?" he asked.

"No, my house is in the other direction. And how the hell do you know where my home is?" Rachel exclaimed.

"It was on your ID," the minotaur stated. "But unfortunately I am not well acquainted with your city. Do you wish to direct me in the proper direction of your dwelling?"

"Why can't you just outright say 'I don't have a clue where I'm going, I've haven't been in this city a lot'?" Rachel snarled.

"Some of us prefer to speak with civility," the minotaur answered.

"Civility? You pulled a gun on me earlier, scared the living hell out of me, stole my books, scared the living hell out of me again, and are currently taking me on a five hundred foot in the sky joyride with me thrown over your shoulder like a sack, threatened to drop me, and **you're** accusing **me** of being **uncivil**?" Rachel exclaimed. "You need to reread the definition of civility **buddy**!"

"My name is not **buddy**, it is Taurus, and I blatantly stated it on my note. You humans should try to recall names, Rachel Wesley," Taurus stated. "And I returned you books, in good condition might I add, not a page folded or ripped or a spine worn. You damaged them yourself when you fell."

"Well, excuse me, Mister Taurus for being so uncivil before you almighty, better-than-thou presence!" Rachel snapped back. "I tend to forget my station when I'm suspending five hundred feet in the air on a wave rider on the shoulder of a side of beef!"

"You know what, Miss Rachel Wesley, I think I like this end better," Taurus stated. He rolled his shoulder, shifting Rachel's butt. "A lot quieter."

"So you do have a sense of humor," Rachel said.

"That wasn't in good humor, Miss Rachel Wesley," Taurus answered dryly. Rachel managed to suppress a laugh, but she was still mildly baffled whether that was in serious or not. With his tone of voice, she could not tell.

"The same goes for you too," Rachel said, looking down. "At least this side doesn't try to offend my intelligence. And please, don't call me Miss Rachel Wesley. Rachel is just fine. So what exactly is your full name, Mister Taurus?"

"It's not important," Taurus answered, turning the hovercraft around.

"Well obviously it is since you've been making such a big deal out of it," Rachel said. "What, are you some type of agent or something since you can't tell me your full name?"

"I'm Chief of Security, I protect and serve."

"A police officer then, huh?" Rachel said. "I'm guessing not for the NYPD. You're a police officer for a hidden race of monsters? A race of monsters that hate humans and hide themselves and keep humans away from their highly evolved city."

Taurus nearly dropped her. "How in Hades did you know all that?"

"You don't get out much do you? I kind of figured it out. Is it this strange contraption we're riding, or the fact you're a minotaur, or the fact that you seem to make a huge deal that I'm human that lead to that conclusion. Trust me, I've seen it in all sorts of movies and books and comics and sitcoms and cartoons. It's so obvious it's cliche," Rachel said.

Taurus snorted. "Am I going in the right direction?"

"Yes," Rachel answered. "So, how were my books?"

Taurus mulled over his answer. "They were…interesting."

"Interesting, so did you like them?"

"The one, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break," Taurus said. "It was very…deep. Mildly confusing, but the poetry was quite well written. But the Minotaur, he was never like that. He wasn't that pathetic."

"Everything's pretty pathetic once you realize it," Rachel said. "But it's also pretty powerful too. The Minotaur was pathetic, but he was a loving guy, he just wanted a family, a person to love him and for him to love in return, so he wasn't all that pathetic. Compare him to some of his cohorts, and he's more human than them."

"Human is a bad term for my people," Taurus stated. "Remember, we don't like humans? So humans are inhuman to us while we're human, in your terminology."

"Humane then," Rachel said. "He was more _humane_ than them."

"Better," Taurus said. Did she just notice he smiled? Maybe it was just the flashing lights from the bridge as they passed it playing a trick on her eyes.

"I'm guessing there's a different version to the Theseus and the Minotaur myth for your people," Rachel said.

"In our version, the Minotaur was held captive in the labyrinth because of his own beastliness. He was beaten and starved till he was almost dead then Theseus came along, broke his back in one stomp and took his head. Then he was proclaimed a hero for defeating a starving creature who hadn't done a thing to anyone other than frighten a few people because of his appearance," Taurus stated. "The Cretans used the Minotaur as a threat to Athens to get whatever they wanted from them. The fourteen virgin maids and boys became concubines, lovers, and servants to royalty while the treasure of Athens decorated the homes of the Cretans. The minotaur got nothing more than a few bones tossed into his enclosure, if they remembered to feed him."

"You know what's sad," Rachel said.

"What?"

"That's sound even more truthful than our legend," Rachel said. "It makes our legend, something fake, sound true."

Taurus nodded.

&&&

"That's my house," Rachel said, pointing downward to a dark roof. "You should be able to land on the roof. The landlady's hippy grandson had the roof fortified so that he could have huge 'stargazing' parties up here. I heard there could be as many as twenty or thirty people up here. It should be safe enough for you to land this."

Halfway to her home, Rachel switched positions from Taurus's shoulder to sitting directly behind him. She nearly fell off, but Taurus kept a steady grasp on her, and she didn't plummet to her death. It was like riding an aerial motorcycle, now that she was not so perilously balanced on the minotaur's shoulder. She was actually enjoying it. The only thing she did not enjoy was Taurus's lengthy ponytail continually hitting her in the face.

Taurus landed the hovercraft on the roof. He stayed on the hovercraft while Rachel dismounted. Taurus dismounted shortly afterwards. From a compartment in the back of the hovercraft, he removed her books and papers and handed them too her. He was prepared to mount his hovercraft when she stopped him.

"You sure you don't want to come in? To get a drink or something? I mean, I feel bad for flipping out on you," Rachel said, holding the books close to her chest. "Are you sure you'll be okay traveling at night to wherever you live? Don't you need a place to crash for the night?"

Taurus lowered his foot, which was on the side o the hovercraft. "I'll be fine."

"I have more books if you want to borrow them. Don't you have to go to the bathroom? You have a long trip ahead of you, don't you?" Rachel asked sheepishly.

Taurus had to turn in this change of behavior to face the young woman. At first she appeared defiant and spicy, a perfect example of the dangers of the human race, but then she changed, but not into an honorable, brave figure like Elisa Maza, but instead into a shy, young female with a regrettable expression on her pale face. If Elisa was an animal, she would be a fox, powerful, clever, and brave with a sleek, muscular, colorful body and clever, bright eyes. If Rachel was an animal, she'd be a mouse, or maybe a rabbit, small, shy, lightly colored with a round, soft body with large, but equally bright eyes. The eyes said everything, in a way, they were just like Elisa's.

"I guess," Taurus said. He clicked on the controller in his hand, setting the hovercraft into camouflage mode.

&&&

Taurus followed Rachel down the ladder that led down to her balcony. He dropped the last ten feet, landing with a thud behind Rachel. He never thought a human could jump so high. He gave her a small smile, half embarrassed half smug.

Rachel slid the balcony doors open and walked into her kitchen. Rachel flicked on a switch to her apartment. Taurus and Rachel were in her walk-in kitchen which opened up into a living room/library/study/ dining room. In one corner of the expansive room was her computer desk and a book shelf, at the wall across from them was a sofa and a television set, on the other side of the room was a table and chairs. There was a door that led into a spare bedroom, a bedroom with a water bed, which Rachel was not too fond of. Two doors beside the computer opened up into Rachel's own small bedroom and a bathroom.

"Make yourself at home," Rachel said, taking off her coat. She hung it on a coat rack. She watched in awe as Taurus wiped his booted feet on the door mat and took his boots off. He neatly placed the boots by the door. "The bathroom is over there."

Taurus's hoofed feet clicked on the hardwood floor as he headed over to the bathroom. He shut the door gently. It was silent as Rachel dug through her fridge, pulling out bottles of cola and juice. The toilet flushed. There was the sound of running water as Taurus washed his hands and the ripping of paper as he dried them.

"Thank you," he said graciously to Rachel upon leaving the bathroom.

"Coke or Pepsi?" Rachel asked, holding up two two-liter bottles. Taurus examined the bottles curiously.

"What are they?" Taurus asked, scratching his chin.

"They're human drinks; soda, cola, pop, tonic. We drink a lot of them. Especially college students like me," she said.

"Hmm, the blue one," Taurus said, pointing to the Pepsi bottle. He personally did not care.

"Pepsi," she said.

"Pepsi," Taurus stated, tasting the word on his tongue.

"Make yourself at home," Rachel restated. She began to pour the Pepsi into to glasses, one bigger than the other. "There's a television there."

Rachel indicated the large blocky screen sitting on a squat pedestal. It looked similar enough to the screen in Taurus's own apartment. Taurus found an equally blocky remote sitting on a side table. He picked it up, it was too small for his massive hands, so channels bounced around crazily as large fingers tried to press the small rubbery buttons. He never succeeded in pressing just one, he pressed two or three at a time. In the back of his mind he could hear his mother joke about his father and his "fat minotaur fingers".

"You know, your note said you'll be here later than this," Rachel said, opening a box of something.

"So you did read it," Taurus said. He held the remote in one hand and came down on the buttons with one finger. "I'm sorry about that. It was not of my intentions to come early. Unfortunately things did not turn out as I had planned. I hope this does not infer on your plans."

"It doesn't," Rachel said, opening up cupboards.

Taurus gave up trying to use the remote and settled on whatever channel the boxlike screen happened to be on. A grey haired human with glasses stared down at the body of blonde woman, her corpse marred by small cuts. He flashed his light down on her. A younger looking human appeared behind him.

"You know what's worse than finding one body at the scene of a crime?" the older man asked the younger man.

"No, what Grishom?" the man asked.

"Finding two," the man shown his light into a pipe, revealing the body of another woman, dressed in black with dark hair, lying lifeless in the pipe.

The scene quickly cut off and turned into flashing images of people and words set off in some loud music. _Wont get fooled again. No no! won't get fooled again!_

There was an explosion of sound behind Taurus. Taurus jumped and turned around, ducking behind the couch. The top of his head and the large curving horns were only visible. The tip of the laser gun became visible.

"It's just popcorn," Rachel said, over the racket. She smiled, recalling earlier.

"Popcorn?" Taurus asked, his head rising above the back of the couch. There was a click as the laser found its way back into his belt. He was thankful and unthankful for Boreas allowing him to keep his laser.

"Snack food," Rachel said as the racket died down. She drizzled a golden liquid onto a mass of white fluffy "flowers". She added some spices and tossed the popcorn in the air, thoroughly coating the pieces.

She brought the popcorn and Pepsi over to Taurus. She handed him a large glass of fizzing, brown liquid to Taurus. She sat the bowl between her and Taurus. Rachel took a gulp of the Pepsi and grabbed a handful of popcorn. Taurus stared down at the glass, his snout tip on the rim. He took a small sip. He snorted and reared his head back as bubbles flew up his nose. Rachel looked at him. Taurus tentatively took a large sip. The liquid burned and it was bubbly. Taurus nearly spit it out. Instead, the liquid flew up his throat, burning his sinuses and the long expanse of his nostrils.

"Oh Zeus!" Taurus exclaimed as the liquid, no longer fizzy, dripped out his nose. Tears poured from his eyes. "What the Hades is this awful stuff?"

"It's carbonated water with artificial flavor," Rachel said matter-of-factly, her face burning as she suppressed a laugh.

"It's disgusting, that's what," Taurus said, his voice some what distorted.

"I'll get you water," Rachel said, getting up. She took Taurus's glass and dumped it in the sink.

As Rachel poured a glass of water for Taurus, Taurus tasted the popcorn, which he found very much to his liking. The white flowers were chewy and crunchy, very light and fluffy. He never quite had anything like it before. The experience was very rewarding. One hand full followed another. When Rachel came back with a sweating glass of ice water, the bowl was empty. Was she that slow at getting a glass of water or was Taurus that fast of an eater she wondered.

"I guess you were hungry," Rachel said picking up the empty bowl. "I'll make us another bowl."

"Thank you," Taurus said nodding his head, "it was quite delicious. What exactly is popcorn?"

"It's corn kernels. When they are heated up they 'pop', turning into fluffy popcorn," Rachel said.

"I see," Taurus said. He turned back to the program on television. "What is this program, Rachel?"

"It's CSI, Crime Scene Investigators," Rachel answered, pouring small yellow corn kernels into a strange looking appliance. She set the bowl underneath it.

"What's it about?" Taurus said, his ears homing in on Rachel, his eyes focusing on the show. A group of people stood around the body of the blond woman who was discovered early. A man, ever older than the human seen earlier, held up the woman's slit, bloody wrist. Nearby the body of the brunette woman lay on a steel table, a white sheet covering her from the chest down.

"When someone is killed, the CSI try to figure out how they die and who killed them," Rachel answered, removing a stick of butter from the fridge.

"Ah," Taurus responded. There was not a peep from him as Rachel made another, bigger bowl of popcorn. She sat it down beside him. He did not even notice.

Taurus watched the show intently, occasionally reaching for popcorn. He did not talk until the last twenty minutes of the show.

"It has to be that guy, the former prisoner," Taurus said. "He killed the one girl, but not the other. It said the blond girl was killed by accident when she walked through a glass door. I think the brunette, her sister, was going to do something, and he killed her to keep her from talking and blaming him for the accident."

Taurus's hypothesis was true.

"How did you figure that out?" Rachel asked.

"It was easy, just add the facts up and then look at how the prisoner behaved. Years of police work help as well," Taurus said, polishing off the last of the popcorn.

"How many years?" Rachel asked.

"Many," Taurus answered. He yawned. "Many."

"I have a water bed if you want to sleep on it," Rachel said, getting up. She pointed to the spare bedroom.

"I'm quite fine here," Taurus said. "But thank you."

Taurus slumped down on the couch. His horned head rested on the arm rest, his arms across his chest and his feet hanging over the other arm rest. His eyelids closed over his eyes.

"Are you comfortable?" Rachel asked.

"Quite," was the short answered.

Rachel barely had the door shut to her own bedroom when Taurus started snoring.

&&&

It was not the bright morning light that woke Taurus up, who some how ended up on the floor underneath a pile of sofa cushions, but it was the smell and sizzle of food. Rachel was standing at her oven, her back to him. A steaming tower of thin, golden cakes rested beside her. It had to be two feet high, and it smelt delicious. Taurus scratched the back of his head, at his ebony hair, mussed from the night's sleep.

"How did I end up on the floor?" he grumbled, his eyes narrowed with sleep. He looked outside through the glass doors of the balcony. It looked to be around ten. He had never slept like that before.

"I think you rolled over and took all the cushions with you. I heard a thump in the middle of the night," Rachel said, adding another limp cake to the tower.

"What are those?" Taurus asked walking up to the kitchen.

"Pancakes," Rachel answered rather cheerfully.

"Pancakes," Taurus said. He walked up beside her and peeled a hot pancake from the tower. He rolled it up and ate it. "Mmmmm."

"You don't eat them like that," Rachel said, adding the last bit of batter to the skillet. "You eat them with syrup and butter, sometimes jam, or poached fruit."

"Do you have anything I could wash my mouth with?" Taurus asked. His voice sounded too serious to be joking.

"I thought you liked the pancakes. You sounded like you did anyway" Rachel said, hurt.

"No, no, I didn't mean it like that," Taurus said. "I mean, something that would clean my mouth. Damn. Do you have something that washes mouths, mouth wash or something like that. Something that gets rid of morning breath."

"Oh," Rachel said. "There's a bottle of it in the bathroom. It's blue."

"Thank you," Taurus said. He peeled another pancake off of the pile and ate it as he headed to the bathroom. "Would it be okay if I borrowed your sink for a few moments too?"

"Sure," Rachel said, adding the last pancake to the pile.

Taurus was gone for about ten minutes. Rachel had the table set. She took a jar of strawberry jam out of the fridge and a jar of marmalade and set on them table so that Taurus could try eating his pancakes with other things. She did not know how to make poached fruit, but she figured Taurus would be satisfied with syrup and jam. He seemed pretty content eating the pancakes plain. She poured a glass of milk and a glass of orange juice for both of them.

Rachel just sat down at the table and began to eat her pancakes when Taurus returned from her bathroom. He had a towel wrapped around his head. a few soaking wet strands of black hair fell free from it.

"I am sorry," Taurus said, pulling the towel free and cleaning out the inside of his ears. "I needed to wash my hair. I made a slight mess, but it is cleaned up. I fixed your dripping shower too. I plan on leaving later tonight under the cover of darkness."

Rachel noticed the smell of mangos and peaches in the air. "You used my shampoo."

"It smelt good," Taurus confessed, brushing some white foam out from behind his ear. He sat down at the table, the chair groaned, but held. He did not tell that he tasted it too, and discovered that the burning mouthwash was more palatable than the shampoo. He ended washing his mouth twice with the mouthwash before the taste was out of his mouth. He thought it was all natural, like the bottle said. Damn Herbal Essence, apparently natural was only an essence. He could still taste the shampoo in the back of his throat. "So what do I put on the pancakes?"

"That bottle there, that's syrup," Rachel said, pointing to a bottle of golden brown liquid. "Be careful, it's sticky. I also have some marmalade and jam there if you want to try them."

Taurus squeezed the syrup onto a pile of pancakes. He was quite startled at the obnoxious sound the bottle made. The thin, fluffy pancakes plumped up with the syrup, soaking it up like little sponges. He tried a large forkful of pancakes.

"Hades, these are good, I mean, downright delicious!" he exclaimed. So simple to the taste buds, so delicious to the taste buds. There was a food orgy on his tongue. Taurus ate contentedly loud. He finished off the pancakes, did not even bothering to try them with the jam and marmalade.

Taurus drank both the orange juice and milk. The milk was something almost new to Taurus, and he greatly enjoyed it, just like he enjoyed the popcorn the night before, but not as much as the pancakes. He knew what milk was, but it was a rare thing on New Olympus. The island was too small for cattle and the last of the goats died centuries ago. The 'milk' that he and most New Olympians drank was a synthetic combination of fats, oils, and minerals. It was thicker than water and just a little more tasteful, and that was it. This milk was rich, thicker and more tasteful than the synthetic milk. The only time when New Olympians could obtain such milk was when they were just babies and were breastfed by their mothers. It was years since Taurus last had milk this good.

"Got milk?" Rachel said jokingly to a satisfied Taurus, who sported a milk moustache across his muzzle.

"Huh?" Taurus asked, wiping his muzzle clean.

"Nothing," Rachel said gather up the dishes.

"Here, allow me," Taurus said, practically pushing her aside. He gathered up all the dishes and took them to the sink. "You are quite the hostess, Miss Rachel. I am gracious with your service and hospitality. At least allow me to wash the dishes."

"It's not worth arguing with you," Rachel said, handing him the glasses. Taurus smiled. "You seem to be very good at getting your way."

Taurus washed the dishes as Rachel put them away.

"Rachel, what goes into those pancakes?" he asked, washing the bowl that held the pancake batter. "I'm interested in obtaining the recipe for use at my home."

"It comes from a box," Rachel answered.

"A box?"

"Yes, a box of pancake mix. It's pre-made so all you have to do is add milk, eggs, and oil," Rachel said, removing a box from the cupboard above her head. Taurus took the box in soapy hands.

"Pre-made. Strange," Taurus said.

It was strange to the minotaur. All Olympian food was made from fresh ingredients, there was nothing pre-made or dried, waiting for a few wet ingredients to be added. There were numerous specialized stores along the streets that sold only a particular food item. There were stores that sold only meal and grain for making bread and other related food, unfortunately pancakes weren't included among them. Some stores sold only fresh fruit, other sold only fresh vegetables. Others sold only herbs and some sold only spices. Even the fish market, which is where most of the meat came from with the exception of a few poultry farms, was specialized. There were vendors who sold only mollusks, other who dealt with crab and shrimps, and others who sold fish, some small and whole and others, like tuna, in large steaks. The idea of a whole meal coming from a box was almost preposterous to a minotaur who came from a completely electronic city. It was quite amazing, Taurus thought as he tipped the box, examining it.

He returned the box to Rachel.

"I have an extra box, would you like it?" Rachel asked, setting the almost empty box in the cupboard and removing another box. "You can have it, as a gift."

"Thank you," Taurus said taking the box. Rachel also handed him a full bottle of Mrs. Butterworth syrup.

"You'll need that also," Rachel said.

"Seriously, Rachel, you don't need to give me all this," Taurus said. "Breakfast was enough."

"Oh don't worry," Rachel said, closing the cupboards. "It's a gift. From me to you."

"Miss Wesley, you have given me quite a lot, honestly," Taurus said, startled.

"Don't worry," Rachel said. "Your thanks is enough to me."

Rachel left him in the kitchen. She went to her bedroom and came back with the muddy books. "So what were you doing in New York the first time?"

"Personal business," Taurus said.

"It looked like you were looking for something—or someone," Rachel said. "You said you were a police officer, did a prisoner escape to here or is there some crime ring here?"

Taurus gave her a dirty look.

"What?" Rachel said, flipping through her notes. "What?"

"Nothing," Taurus stated. "It was just business, that's all."

A side of him wanted to tell Rachel about Proteus, about Proteus killing his father, as he did with any person who was willing to listen. But a side of him didn't. He did trust the human. It was strange. He did not trust Elisa Maza at first until she nearly died saving New Olympus. He trusted Rachel immediately. He trusted her enough that he ate food without fear of getting poisoned and slept without the fear of her calling the police or turning him in. Even if he did trust her with his life, he did not trust enough with his personal life, unlike Elisa who he immediately told about Proteus slaying his father. Perhaps, it was because she said they had more in common than he thought.

Rachel kept quiet for a few minutes while Taurus stood in the kitchen reading the back of the pancake mix box.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Studying for an exam," she said.

He came over to the table and pulled a seat out. "You are a college student, you said last night before I drank that Pepsi. What are you going to school for?"

There were colleges in New Olympus. Greece was one of the first countries to create colleges, and the New Olympians still carried on that tradition. The majority of colleges of New Olympus were mostly mathematically and philosophically based. There was one science college, where students would learn about genetics, electricity, and botany. These students would become the backbone of New Olympus, the ones who would deal with breeding and health, the energy usage of the buildings, and the food consumption of the city. There were two architectural and mechanical colleges, and one theatrical and art college. The art college was the oldest building and college in New Olympus. The college, originally a theatre, was built as soon as ancestors of the new Olympians came to the island. Taurus had never been to any of these sorts of colleges. It was not required of him, by the city and his superiors. Most New Olympians had on the job training, preparing them immediately for work. Taurus took several years of training at the gymnasium, as well as classes in law.

"The veterinary care of large animals," Rachel said, focusing on the detailed photograph of a horse. Arrows pointed to various parts of its anatomy. "I'm studying for a chemistry test. I have to figure out how many milligrams and what kind of medicine a horse needs to take."

Other than the centaur and a few anthropomorphic horselike creatures, the New Olympians never seen a horse in its true, all natural form. Taurus was amused by this. All that remained of horses on New Olympus were a few millennia old, crude sketches of them. Those sketches did not do the horses justice. Taurus thought the picture was beautiful. He was viewing this picture the same way the human probably view a centaur. It made him smirk. It was quite a change for him.

"Something wrong?" Rachel asked, noticing Taurus looking over her shoulder.

"It's a horse," Taurus stated.

"Yes, a horse. What, don't you have them?" Rachel asked.

"Only centaurs," Taurus answered. "They are very beautiful."

"What, the centaurs?"

"No, the horses."

"Oh yeah," Rachel said, looking at the photo. "They are. You should see a herd of them run through a field. It's breathtaking."

"I would love to see that," Taurus stated. "You've seen them before?"

"My grandfather owned a farm. He had horses, chickens, and cattle," Rachel said.

"Is that why you want to be a veterinary?" Taurus asked.

"Part of it. I love animals," Rachel said. "Do you have a lot of animals where you live?"

"Not a lot. We have a lot of birds, some small mammals like a small dogs, cats, and rabbits. But nothing bigger than that. We do not have a lot of space," Taurus said.

"You're on an island?" Rachel asked. She was very perceptive.

"Yes," Taurus said.

"Is it nice there?"

"It is very nice," Taurus said. "Despite a few flaws, but it is a nice place."

"Please tell me about it," Rachel asked.

"Tell me more about the farm, and I will oblige you," Taurus answered.

&&&

They talked for about two hours. It was an experience for both of them. Rachel asked a lot of questions, while Taurus just listened to her recollect. She even went to her bedroom and returned with pictures of her, much younger, riding horses and feeding ponies. Taurus flipped through the pictures as Rachel rattled off the names of each horse, each animal.

Then Rachel had to return to studying. She read her notes for another hour, worked on some problems for yet another hour. Taurus tried to watch television again, but the shows were not as intriguing as they were earlier. He flipped through the channels for an hour. Finally, Taurus stopped on a channel and leaned forward with interest. Okay, the shows did catch his attention, but only because they were so bright and loud. A mass of blue fur and goggle eyes appeared on screen. In its hand it held some kind of biscuit with black spots.

_C is for cookie, good enough for me_.

He switched the channel.

_**F** is for friends who do stuff together. _

_**U** is for you and me. _

_**N** is for any where and anytime at all, _

_Down here in the deep blue sea!_

"What in Hades?" Taurus blanched as a yellowish square thing flipped across the screen, "is this?"

"Spongebob Squarepants," Rachel answered as her pencil scribbled across a piece of paper. "It's a cartoon, basically a moving picture."

"I figured that out. But what exactly is it? I mean, what the Hades?" Taurus exclaimed.

"My reaction exactly," Rachel said. "Taurus, would you like to quiz me?"

"I'll try my best, but I am not sure what I can do," Taurus said.

"Just read me the questions from the book," Rachel said handing him the book. "I do better when someone's talking."

Taurus tried to help Rachel study. Taurus quizzed her on her notes and on questions found in the back of her books. She answered less than half right. The table was covered in papers with scratched out math equations and the sketches of chemical components. Rachel was disappointed.

"Damn, I need to study more," she said sinking into her arms.

"You did better than I would have, but I don't think that that is really reassuring," Taurus said, looking down at the book. He scratched at his ear. "It is all Abyssinian to me."

"Abyssinian?" Rachel asked.

"I can't understand it," Taurus said. "It's a completely different language to me, all these mathematic problems."

"Oh," Rachel said, looking down at her text book. "Let's try this again."

&&&

Two hours later…

"You hungry?" Rachel asked Taurus, who was slumped over the table half asleep.

They had eaten breakfast late and completely skipped over lunch in her fury to study. Taurus was a surprisingly good sport. He was probably hungry along with being incredibly bored.

"A little," Taurus said, then was cut off by his growling stomach.

Rachel did not know what to make for dinner, something that the minotaur would like, and there would have to be plenty of it. Taurus had proven he was not a very picky eater. Anything he was offered he had eaten, and liked. Then again, Rachel was very meticulous in what she offered him, nothing too flavorful and powerful.

"Would you like to try pizza?" Rachel offered. "It's bread with sauce and cheese and toppings of your choice."

"Hmmm," Taurus thought. "Miss Wesley, you don't have to do this. I'll be fine."

"No, Taurus, it's nothing, it isn't," Rachel said. She had a phone in her hand.

"Rachel, I should be the one buying you dinner," Taurus said. "Honestly."

"I'll consider it later," Rachel said.

Rachel looked down at some pizza ads near the phone. Formaini's Pizza always had great deals. Rachel dug for the ad. Ah, two small one topping pizzas for ten dollars, plus tax and a dollar fifty for every extra topping. The sale ends today. Rachel had a hundred and twenty something dollars in cash on her, leftover from her paycheck. It was a good thing she did buy groceries earlier that week.

Rachel put into consideration what to order. She was not exactly sure what Taurus liked, but she wanted him to be surprised with the pizza toppings. He seemed utterly delighted with the food she offered him, and she wanted him to be equally delighted with the pizza. Unfortunately, Rachel could not honestly tell if Taurus was a vegetarian or not. Rachel decided it was best to order toppings she knew she would like and sounded good. She did not want to be stuck with a bunch of pizzas that he and she did not want to eat in her fridge.

Rachel ordered three extra cheese pizzas, two pepperonis, one olive, one pineapple, a meat lover's pizza (for herself), one supreme, one green pepper, one sausage, and one mushroom. The man on the phone was nice enough throw in an order of breadsticks and one of the extra cheese pizzas in for free. Rachel also asked for anchovies, not on the pizzas, but set off to the side as well. She always wanted to try them and decided now was the time. If she didn't like them, she did not want to be picking them off of the pizza.

The pizza took forty-five minutes to deliver. Taurus hid in the extra bedroom as Rachel paid for and tipped the delivery boy for the pizzas. It took all her money. She set the tower on the counter.

"Here you go Taurus, pizza," Rachel said. She opened a box. Taurus looked over her shoulder. "I ordered different toppings so that you can find one you like."

"It smells good," he said, looking down at the bubbling cheese. "What is it?"

"Extra cheese," Rachel said, opening another box, the meat lovers.

Taurus easily picked up a pizza, its cheese stretching, and gulped it down. He chewed on the slice for a moment, licking the grease from his lips. He swallowed it. He leaned over and took another slice. "Delicious."

"I'm glad you liked it," Rachel said, taking a few more slices. She headed back to the table to study.

Taurus tried a slice from every box of pizza. The only ones he did not like were the green pepper and mushroom ones. He ate one whole pepperoni pizza himself and one half of the other one. He commented on good the meat was on the pepperoni pizzas, showing his carnivore side. He gobbled down the black olive pizza too, along with the anchovies Rachel ordered. He ate half of the meat lover's pizza, two slices of the sausage pizza, and three slices of the supreme pizza. Taurus's downright favorite was the pineapple pizza. He loudly commented and enjoyed this pizza. Rachel, who never had pineapple pizza, did not even get a slice.

In the end, with all the pieces put together, there were two and half pizzas left. Taurus was content.

"Those were delicious Miss Wesley," he said, licking his chops. "Thank you graciously. They were the most enjoyable things I had all day."

"You're welcome Taurus," Rachel said. She looked into a dictionary and then at a sheet of paper. She wrote down a few words. "I'm glad you enjoyed them."

It was silent as Taurus looked out the balcony. It was getting dark outside. "Rachel, I must be heading out soon, back to my home."

"Oh, okay," Rachel said.

Suddenly Taurus kneeled down before her. He took her much smaller hand in his larger ones. "I thank you for your hospitality. The food was delicious, your floor was cozy, and your books and programs were interesting. Thank you."

He stood up. "I have one request to ask of you. You must never, ever tell anyone you met me and what you know. Ever."

He held a finger up. His eyes glared angrily. "Ever."

He was deathly serious.

"I promise, who is going to believe me if I did say anything?" she said. "But I'm not, I promise it. Promise you won't tell anyone I bought you dinner, okay?"

Taurus chuckled. "Promise."

"You're not coming back, are you?" Rachel asked.

"I am not," Taurus said. "Just being here could expose my people. I took a huge chance staying here for the night. I can not come back. I returned your books to you, that is what I came here to do, and it is done. You must not tell anyone, anyone at all."

"Okay," Rachel said softly. "So I guess this is good—"

There was a knock at the door. Both she and Taurus startled.

"Rachel! Rachel!" Mrs. Brigleston shouted, banging her bony fist against the door. "I saw the pizza boy come around here early with boxes of pizzas. Are you having a party up here?"

"No," Rachel answered.

"Open the door!" the elderly lady exclaimed. "You better no be having a party. You know how parties damage property and scare my dogs!"

Taurus grabbed his satchel from the table. Rachel had put in the box of pancake mix, the syrup, and a few Ziploc bags filled with popcorn in the satchel earlier. He gathered a few other things Rachel had given to him as Rachel stood by the door talking through it to the elderly lady. He quickly darted out onto the balcony and up the ladder.

Rachel opened the door for the elderly lady. She walked in strictly, a small rusty Pomeranian in her arms. The Pomeranian, Mr. Wiggles, panted and twisted his head wildly and stupidly in the elderly lady's arms.

"I had a friend over early for dinner. He left not to long ago, you must have missed him," Rachel said.

"All these pizzas for one friend?" Mrs. Brigleston asked, pointing to the boxes of pizzas.

"He's a foreigner. I ordered a variety so that he could find one he liked," Rachel answered.

"It looks like he found a few he liked," the woman said, noting the several empty boxes.

"In deed he did," Rachel stated. "He liked the pineapple the best."

"So what country is he from?"

"He's Grecian," Rachel answered. "We were studying for our chemistry tests."

"Oh," she said, looking down at all the notes scattered across the table. Everything spoke for Rachel. The woman began to leave. "Fine. Sorry to bother you."

Rachel wiped the sweat from her forehead and then went out onto the balcony. "Taurus? Taurus?"

No answer. Rachel crawled up ladder onto the roof. She did not see the hovercraft or the minotaur. At first she thought they were both camouflaged. "Taurus, it's all right, she's gone."

Nothing.

Rachel walked over to the spot where Taurus had parked his vehicle.

There was nothing. He had just left, without saying goodbye. She was not going to see him ever again. It was kind of depressing, despite the fact she only knew him barely a day. He was the most interesting person she had met, an interesting person in a city of interesting people. She had not had so much fun in a while. Her bad streak was ending!

Sadly Rachel descended down the ladder onto her balcony and walked into her kitchen. She sat down at her table, trying to recall the events of the pass day and night.

"Maybe I should just study, just to forget everything," she murmured. She reached for her dictionary. It was gone. "What the?"

On her list of words, there was a note.

_Dear Miss Rachel Wesley,_

_Thank you again for your amazing hospitality. I enjoyed myself, and I hope you too enjoyed yourself. I am sorry for leaving so suddenly, but I do not want to risk being discovered. I am borrowing your _(there was huge space here as if he was mulling over something)_ dictionary. It looks like an interesting read and will further serve me on my research. It will be returned to you in a week's time. _

_Thank you graciously, _

_Taurus _

Rachel laughed.


	4. Just a Walk in the Park

**Just a Walk in the Park**

"Rachel, that's an odd sounding name, it sounds like a guy's name," Calypso said, picking the pepperoni off of a slice of cold, hard pizza. At first and initial taste, Taurus thought the pepperoni was a pickled, heavily spiced fish/rabbit sausage, but after Calypso tried the pizza, she pointed out that it in fact was not fish or rabbit, but some different meat completely. Calypso was fond of the pizza, not so fond of the pepperoni. She picked the pepperoni off of the pizza, then the cheese, then broke off the crust, ate the sauce coated piece, then the cheese, then the crust, but left the pepperoni untouched on Taurus's counter. Calypso sat on Taurus's counter, watching the minotaur cook breakfast.

"It's a female name," Taurus answered, stirring a batter in the bowl. "But it could be ambiguous."

"It sounds so weird. Rae-CHEL, RAE-chel. Humans have strange names, don't they?" Calypso said.

"Our names probably sound strange to them," Taurus said. "I've only met two humans personally, Calypso. They might not all have weird names."

There were a pile dishes in the sink and on the counter, an empty carton of partridge eggs, spoons lying around, mixing bowls of various sizes were pulled out of the cupboards, many had been used, and a layer of a flour-like meal covered everything, from the counters, to the floor, to Taurus. It looked as if Taurus was preparing an elaborate breakfast. Hard to believe it, but he was only trying to make pancakes.

Taurus always considered himself a very good cook. Ask anyone who has eaten at his apartment. All of his visitors would be surprised as the Chief of Security would pull out a pan from his cupboard and cook up a multi course meal with an elaborate dessert. Most visitors were dates who were always left satisfied after dinner and dessert, then after-after dinner and dessert. Unfortunately Taurus could not say the same of that to his dates. He was always left disappointed and empty with his dates, sometimes his disappointment appeared during the dinner conversations other times it appeared in the morning. In those cases, Taurus did not bother making a multi course breakfast for his dates. He would lie in bed, pretending to be asleep until his dates finally got out the bed, got dressed, and left the apartment quietly. Then Taurus would immediately crawl out of his sheets, get a shower, and head to work.

Taurus could toast sesame seeds, cook up a vegetable medley, and cook fish stock up at the same time, but the pancake mix left him baffled. It was pre-made; all he needed to do was add wet ingredients and eggs to make the batter. Rachel was kind enough to give him the entire box and the syrup plus a few other gifts like the popcorn, a half-gallon of milk, and a few extra slices of pizza. With all her generosity, Rachel had forgotten to toss in a measuring cup for Taurus. Both Rachel and Taurus overlooked the fact that the measurement system for the humans and New Olympians were completely different. Humans measure their dry and wet ingredients with the same measurement system, while Olympians prefer to measure their dry ingredients by weight and their liquids by volume (similar to the metric system).

Taurus started out with one medium sized bowl and mixed everything together, the best he could. He repeatedly looked back on his high school mathematics class so he could ratio the mixture. Unfortunately Taurus was a D math student, and it was fractions that brought Taurus down to a D student. Taurus ended up with a globby looking ball of dough at the bottom of his bowl. He recalled the eggs Rachel used, and he knew that there was a size difference between the partridge eggs in his fridge and the huge white eggs on her counter. Taurus added about eight eggs to the mixture. The result was a bright yellow batter that looked more like the base for an omelet than pancakes. So Taurus added milk to try and counter the yellow color. He ended up with pancake soup, tinged yellow. He moved the mixture to a large bowl and added more dry mixture, and the process started all over again. Taurus finally thought he was getting the mixture to the consistency of the mixture in the bowl Rachel had. Bit by bit he added the milk, the eggs, and the dry mix to the bowl. He was just tilting the box to add the dry mixture to the bowl when Calypso burst through his unlocked door, startling him. The remaining contents of the box poured into the batter as well as the box.

After removing what dry mix that did not suck up the batter and adding milk to thin out the thick mixture, Taurus felt the batter was a decent consistency. He set the bowl on the counter and dug through the pans he used on his stove top. Taurus did not own a flat skillet neither did Calypso. He doubted anyone in the apartment complex owned a very flat skillet. Taurus tried a regular pan for the first pancake, and the results were far from perfect. The pan was used more often to cook fish steaks. He found it very hard to move the spatula in a pan with sides, and the pancake continually burnt to the bottom of this skillet.

In the end, Taurus took round cake pans and poured the mixture into the bowl and threw them into the oven under the broiler. He watched the pans carefully as the mixture bubbled and the top turned a rich golden brown. Taurus leaned over and pulled the cake pans out of the oven.

"Are they done?" Calypso asked. Taurus placed a toothpick in the center of a cake. It came out clean.

"I think," he said, putting on his glasses to inspect the toothpick further.

Taurus took one pan and turned it upside down on a plate. He set the cake beside Calypso. He kneeled down to inspect the cake. Calypso jumped down from the counter and squatted down beside Taurus.

She nudged him. "So, is that what it's supposed to look like?"

"Well, it looks like cake, and it came from a pan," he stated, looking at the pathetic excuse for both a pancake and a plain ordinary cake. It looked as if it was collapsing in on itself. He nudged her. "You can have the first slice."

"No thanks, I'm not hungry," Calypso said. The center of the obese pancake collapsed. "Not that hungry anyway."

"Fine," Taurus said, standing up. He cut a slice of pancake and slid it onto a plate. It landed with an audible 'plop', much like the sound of a dead fish hitting the cutting board. Taurus drowned the slice in maple syrup. "Well, down the hatch."

Taurus gulped a forkful of pancake. It tasted like a pancake, but it was thick and pasty. It slid down his throat like a sea slug. Taurus had to apply extra force to get the clump down his esophagus.

"Are you alright?" Calypso asked. Taurus's throat felt as if it just pushed a multi-ton boulder down a muddy hill and it repeatedly seized up in the thick mud.

"It's great, have a slice," Taurus said, thrusting the plate in Calypso's face.

Calypso wrinkled her nose. "Eww, no! I don't even think the middle's cooked!"

"Eck," Taurus grumbled. "Well, my morning's officially been wasted."

He scraped both pancakes into the sink. The pancakes would through a disposal unit and then into a special underground storage facility underneath the island. Here the pancakes would meet all the garbage disposed of by the citizens of New Olympus. The rotting garbage would provide energy to help run the city, food for the fish farms, and fertilizers for the farms.

As Taurus cleaned the monstrous pile of dishes that was threatening to consume his kitchen, Calypso dug through his satchel. Taurus did not mind. He liked the naiad's unabashed curiosity, just the way she asked questions, spoke, delved into things. She was one of the very few people that did not cower in fear of him. Included in that list was Helios because he was an asshole, Talos because he wasn't programmed to fear the Chief of Security, and Boreas, because that man is nearly twenty feet tall and commands lightening, and maybe because he knows Taurus is not the kind of man to be feared.

"Hey, Taurus, what's this?" she asked, holding several bags of popcorn.

"Popcorn," Taurus answered.

"This?"

"A book I borrowed," Taurus said.

"This? It was at the bottom of the satchel."

"It looks like a cup. I don't recall Rachel giving me that."

"Hey, there's a note! _Dear Taurus, thought you might need this. Love Miss Rachel Wesley._ **Miss Rachel Wesley**? Huh," Calypso said. She twirled the cup by its handle around her finger. Her lips puckered as she read the note again. "**Love**?"

Taurus snatched the cup and the note off of Calypso. He examined the cup; it was engulfed in his massive hands. It took a second to register, but Taurus realized he was holding not an ordinary, drinking cup, but a measuring glass.

"Shit."

&&&

"Rachel, you're in a relatively good mood," Lisa said. "Did you ace that chemistry exam?"

With her arms filled with a massive cardboard box filled with new Dan Brown novels, Lisa walked in on Rachel, who was shelving the new shipment of Jane Evanovich novels. She was smiling as she shelved, humming to whatever tune happened to be on the radio. Classic rock, Rachel was the only person who still listened to class rock. Lisa hasn't heard it in years, most of the employees preferred to listen to more "modern, in-touch-with-modern-life" music.

…_I see a red door and I want it painted black. No color any more I want them to turn black. I see the girls walk by dressed in thier summer clothes. I have to turn my head until my darkness goes..._

"Gotta B on it, and spring break starts Monday, I'm completely hyped," Rachel said.

"Are you going to south for break?" Lisa asked, turning the radio down to a barely audible beat.

"No. Staying up here to finish a term paper and prepare for finals," Rachel answered, shelving the last book.

"I take it you want all of next week off then," Lisa said.

"It's completely up to you, but I'm all game," Rachel answered.

"You're going to be up here this summer, too, right?" Lisa said, slicing open the box with a razor.

"Yeah, it's too much of a hassle to move across the state for three months, and I've got a sweet apartment for the moment. I don't want to lose it," Rachel answered, taking several Angels and Demons hardcovers out.

"I thought your landlady was insane," Lisa said. "You're always bitching about her calling you up in the middle of the night because one of her dogs heard something."

"She is, but I'm paying almost nothing on my apartment because of those dogs," Rachel said, almost laughing.

"So, what's put you in such a good mood?" Lisa asked.

"I don't know. It's just one of those days," Rachel said, almost jiggling. "Do I get next week off?"

"I think I can give the first half of the week off, not sure about the rest depending on what Jason, Carmen, and Tobias is doing," Lisa said.

"That sounds good," Rachel said. She placed the last copy of The DaVinci Code on the top shelf. "Am I done here?"

"Sure, Rachel, you know where your paycheck is," Lisa said.

"Thanks," Rachel said from behind the counter. "I got it. I'll see you next week."

"See you next week," Lisa said.

"Seeya!" came an echoed shout, as the door slammed shut.

&&&

It was not quite dark when Rachel returned home. She had a B on her exam, a raise at work, and spring break was only a few days away. Today could not get any better.

As she walked passed the ten foot high fence that completely surrounded Mrs. Brigleston's property, the landlady's arsenal of Pomeranians barked and scratched at the fence. Their tiny black noses pressed through the cracks. There was a hoarse, loud yap from the oldest of the Pomeranians, Wimbledon Mathias Senior, AKA, Mr. Wiggles. He was Mrs. Brigleston's downright favorite, and Rachel's down right least favorite. The yellow and orange dog with noticeable clumps of crud under its bulgy black eyes was paranoid, senile, and spoiled rotten. It was amazing it was even alive. It barks all night all day, charges anything (from humans to cats to larger dogs to bicycles to cars to a train on one occasion; Rachel had the honor of chasing the dog down the tracks in the middle of the night), and eats twice its weight in wet dog food and bacon grease a day with its tiny, nubby, yellowed teeth.

"Mr. Wiggles! Lady Bell! Tulip! Peachy! Tanner Boy! Get back over here now!" Mrs. Brigleston shouted. Four of the dogs rushed immediately over to the elderly lady. Mr. Wiggles yipped and scratched underneath the fence. A black eye and corner of a narrow muzzle peeked up at Rachel. Realizing it was only the tenet that groomed and bathed it, the dog let a soft yip as a warning or final retort and trotted contentedly back to its owner.

Rachel climbed up the stairs that lead to her apartment and unlocked the door. The smell of fried fish welcomed her. Her backpack and purse fell to the ground when Rachel realized that there was someone else in the apartment with her. A knife rose and fell with extreme force. The sound of the blade cutting through cartilage, bone, and flesh was audible.

"YAAAAHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhh, oh, Taurus," she said, gasping, recognizing the horned form, holding her chest. Her face burnt red. Was it from embarrassment, delight at seeing her minotaur friend, or the obviousness of what he was doing in her kitchen, or what most likely he was doing in her kitchen for **her**? "It's only you. For a moment there I thought someone broke into my apartment."

The hulking minotaur, equally startled, his eyes round and ears raised, turned to face her. In one large hand, he held a meat cleaver; his other hand supported him on the counter. Behind him, Rachel could see the scaly, finned tail and the gutted stomach of a large, stripped fish on one of cutting boards. The fish's head, thrown from the blow, lay a foot away, its black marble eye staring at the ceiling. On the table, her dictionary rested.

"I am sorry, Rachel, I did not mean to frighten you," Taurus answered, setting the cleaver on the counter by the fish. "Nor did I mean to come in such as this, without you allowing me, and use your appliances."

"It's all right," Rachel said. "What are you doing? Making dinner?"

"Yes," the answer was clear-cut. "I owe you greatly."

"All you ever talk about is debt. There's a lot more topics to talk about in this world than debt," Rachel said, setting her backpack, coat, and purse, on a chair. Rachel was not going fight Taurus over dinner. It was nice that someone else was doing the cooking. It had been a long time since someone cooked for her. "They were gifts. So, did you make pancakes?"

"Yes," Taurus stated, stirring something in a large metal kettle. Rachel did not recognize it as hers; Taurus must have brought it along with him. Taurus tasted whatever was in the kettle then added a pinch of coarse salt.

Strange vegetables covered her counter. There were things that looked like squash or zucchini except in a variety forms, colors and sizes, carrots except they were large and appeared to be a bundle of roots, massive eggplant like fruits, the thick bulbous stalks similar to celery except with feathery leaves, and bundles of herbs. There were a few round loaves of brown, crusty bread and spotted eggs in a basket. All the burners on Rachel's stove were in use and there appeared to be food in the oven as well. Taurus must have been bulked down on his hovercraft with all this.

"Taurus, you didn't have to," Rachel said, opening the fridge. There large, parchment covered parcels on every shelf. "Taurus, really, how did you managed to fit all this on your hovercraft?"

"I have two," Taurus answered, filleting the fish. "I just brought the second one."

"Do you want some Sunny-D?" Rachel asked, removing a jug of soft, yellow-orange juice. "It's like orange juice."

"Sure," Taurus answered as he patted the filet of fish with chopped herbs and salt. He put the filet in a pan and put the pan in the oven, removing another pan, a casserole. Rachel filled a glass for Taurus and set it down beside him. She was a little unnerved when she stood beside the minotaur. She had forgotten how large and intimidating he was. She felt weak in the knees.

Rachel leaned against the counter, watching the bull-man cook. She felt the blood rush to her face, it had to be from the heat, from all the burners on. She prayed it was. She had never came home and found a man cooking dinner for her, even prior boyfriends never cooked her dinner, not even meals that were not on a grandiose scale as this. The longest she had ever had a boyfriend was eighteen months (they broke up shortly before she went to college in the city), and the most he did was take her to the local McDonalds on her birthday. This was the third time she had seen Taurus, and he was cooking her dinner! Taurus came earlier than he said originally, came into her house without her inviting him, used her kitchen without asking her, but she wasn't angry, not in the least bit. She was pleasantly surprised and just as pleasantly embarrassed.

"Is that program on tonight?" Taurus asked looking over his shoulder as he chopped vegetables, "CSU? ICS? CSS?"

"CSI," Rachel corrected, and tried to hide her reddened face behind a curtain of messy brown hair. She hated how she looked after a long day of work and classes. _He must think I'm disgusting,_ Rachel thought, recalling how neat and tidy he was on his earlier visit. "Yes, it's on right now. I'll turn it on for you."

"Thank you," Taurus said, expertly slicing a white carrot into a kettle.

"So did you like my book?" Rachel called out from across the room.

She noticed a small smirk on Taurus's muzzle as he sliced a leek into the kettle. "Yes. The author had a very extensive vocabulary."

"I hope you didn't read the whole thing, Taurus. It was a dictionary, a list of words with their meaning, word use, and pronunciation," Rachel said.

"I realized that on the first page. We call a dictionary in our language _Logos_. But I was able to read on you humans' interesting terminology. I found some words, amusing," Taurus said.

"You should have looked at it when you borrowed it," Rachel said. "I have a lot of other books that you would have enjoyed much more. You didn't even bother looking at them when you were last here."

"Yes, maybe later," Taurus answered.

Rachel walked down to her multi-purposed living room and moved the television so that Taurus could see it from the kitchen. She turned on the television. The theme song was playing, so Taurus missed the introduction. But she figured he would comprehend it, he seemed extremely adept at catching on. Taurus was busy with something, but his ears were cocked towards the TV set. Rachel figured since she was halfway to the bathroom, she might as well take a shower.

As commercials came on, Taurus looked up to ask Rachel if she had any mustard seed. The human was gone, but he could hear the sound of a shower turning on through the closed bathroom door. Steam poured out from the crack at the bottom door.

"Oh well," Taurus said, removing an octopus from one of the parchment wrapped parcels.

&&&

Rachel stood in the shower, washing the remains of her Herbal Essence shampoo from her hair. As the swirls of shampoo disappeared down the drain, all she could do was think about life.

_Here I am, a junior in college, barely making the grades, working two jobs, living beside a rich, crazy lady and her equally crazy dogs that eat better than I do,_ Rachel thought, crossing her arms._ And now there is a mythical beast in my kitchen cooking dinner. I can't even believe it. Am I dreaming?_

After Taurus had left, she really thought she was dreaming. It was all she could think of, did it really happen? Did it really happen to **me**? Did some creature with the head of a bull—no, some person with the head of a bull—borrow her books and spend the night in her apartment, watch CSI with her, eat pancakes, and help her study? She couldn't believe it. Maybe she could believe it if Taurus belonged to some race that supposedly died out years ago, but Taurus belonged to legends, legends so outrageous that they were never considered to be true by **anyone**! There weren't even crackpot scientists who said that these creatures exist, some said they were based on actual animals or fossilized remains, but none that said they were downright real and living on highly technologically advanced island. In fact, the legend of the Minotaur did not even say that the Minotaur had a child, Rachel was shocked. She would never have considered this even happening—ever. This situation was just passed the insane and on the verge of the impossible on Rachel's weirdness scale. She dreamed more about getting abducted by aliens or discovering the Loch Ness Monster than ever having dinner cooked for her by a descendent of the Minotaur.

_A minotaur police officer for a hidden colony of monsters who had a Mohawk and a ponytail and an earring who is patient, civil, polite, neat and clean—a bit on the stoic and moody side though, might I add, but he has a sexy voice,_ Rachel thought as she chewed on her thumbnail_, He is full of surprises. I would have never expected him to act like this, he doesn't appear to be the kind of guy who wants to brush his teeth when he wakes up or wash his hair or wipe his boots. I honestly would have expected him to be more shocked at human culture than this, to be, well, primitively frightened, like he doesn't know how to use anything and is asking questions about everything and knocking things over in his confusion. He seems to know what he is doing. _

Rachel looked back on her reaction to Taurus. She thought, maybe, that if she had expected something like this to happen in her life, she would have been frightened of him. But she never expected, or even considered this to happen. Her mind always worried about what she would do if she got mugged on the streets of New York or worse. Initially, she was frightened of Taurus, not terrified. Years of scary movies killed her fear of monsters. It was more the shock of seeing him that made her faint. Just as strange as seeing him, was how quickly she trusted him. As she thought earlier, he had the voice of a guardian angel. He didn't sound like he was going to her, he didn't even sound interested in hurting her or very interested in her at all. Strange, but she felt _safe_ around him. Safe enough to invite him into her house to spend the night as she slept in a bed with an unlocked bedroom door, safe enough to take a shower as he stood only a room away in a kitchen with a meat cleaver. The idea of Taurus doing any harm to her seemed absurd. So absurd that Rachel shook it off, letting it run down the drain with the remnants of shampoo and soap. She turned off the shower.

_Yeah, a five hundred pound wall of muscle with horns and a laser gun. Who's gonna want to mess with me?_ she thought smugly. _Of course I wouldn't be scared of him—or should I be scared of him?_

Rachel held up her bottle of Herbal Essence Mango-Peach shampoo. _Maybe I shouldn't be scared of a guy who uses Herbal Essence shampoo and compliments on how good it smells. _

&&&

Taurus had dinner made and on the table when Rachel finished her shower and redressed into more comfortable clothes. The table was completely covered in dishes. Rachel was shocked at the sight. She hadn't seen a meal like this for a long time. There was the fish Taurus was filleting earlier on a plate covered with lemon slices, a vegetable medley with the squash, the strange bulbs she saw was stuffed with a bread and herb mixture, a soup, a casserole, and numerous other vegetable dishes.

"Taurus, you didn't have to make such a big meal," Rachel said. "Do your people eat this much food?"

"Most of our meals consist of four courses, plus a dessert," Taurus said. "Speaking of which."

Taurus removed something from the freezer. "Pomegranate ice."

"Taurus!" Rachel exclaimed and said nothing else.

"You humans don't eat meals like this often?" Taurus asked, pulling a chair out and sitting down.

"Only on holidays, I'd love to see what your people's holiday dinners look like," Rachel said sitting down. She gaped at the meal before her.

Everything smelt good, well, fishy good. Rachel was a country girl; she was not accustomed completely to eating seafood. She had grown accustom to sushi since she moved to the city, so this cooked fish should not be a hassle. The vegetables were new to her as well. She had never eaten eggplant before, and many of the vegetables she had never seen before. But if Taurus could gulp down a half dozen pizzas without questions, she could try some good down home minotaur cooking.

"Taurus what do you think I should try?" she asked.

"Everything," Taurus answered.

"Okay," Rachel answered.

She tasted a little bit of everything. The fish was delicious. It was so tender that it fell apart easily and the herbs coating the one side could not taste any better. The casserole, it turned out to be a combination of sliced eggplant, tomato like fruit, and a few other chopped vegetables was also very good. The vegetable medley was delicious and so was a cooked salad of spinach and almonds. Rachel had seconds on both these. The stuffed bulbs, they turned out to be fennel, were her second favorite. Her first favorite was the seafood soup, a mix of sweet, root vegetables and scallops, thick and sweet chunks of white meat.

"This is delicious, Taurus. I've never had scallops before," Rachel said. "I've seen them in Chinatown all the time, now I think I'm going to buy them."

"But it's not scallops," Taurus said as Rachel finished her second bowl. "It's octopus. If you cook it just right and remove all the suckers and skin before cooking it, it is very sweet meat."

Rachel felt her stomach cramp.

&&&

Rachel did finish her octopus soup. Octopus was good, as long as you could get pass the fact that the meat belong to a bulbous, slimy creature with tentacles. Just because it tasted good didn't mean that Rachel was going to go out and purchase an octopus anytime soon.

"That was delicious, Taurus," Rachel said, licking her lips. There was still plenty of food left, and she had tried everything at least once. "I would have never suspected that…"

"I could cook" Taurus said, finishing her sentence. Rachel felt her face burn, but Taurus gave her a small smile, pure and genuine. It did little to soothe her. "Many of my people say that."

"Your people," Rachel stated, looking at her empty plate, "you never said much about your people. What are they like?"

"Different," Taurus said.

"Different, so is there more than minotaurs and centaurs?" Rachel asked.

"Satyrs, Cyclops, harpies, gorgons, titans, cecropians, griffins, a variety of nymphs, mercurians," Taurus said. "And that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of different races on New Olympus."

"And you all get along?" Rachel asked. "Like it was nothing? I mean the people fight here just because of beliefs or the color of their skin. But a small island with the people so variably different wouldn't there be some kind of friction?"

"There used to be fights thousands of years ago, but we have rose above that. We are still just mortals," Taurus said, "There are squabbles among the people, but it rarely has to do with race."

"Taurus," Rachel said, "you said your people hated humans, why don't you? I mean, I would have expected more animosity from you than this."

Rachel indicated the meal before her. "Humans killed the Minotaur, killed your people. You could have stolen my books and left in the alleyway and you could have just as easily left in the alleyway again when you returned my books, but you didn't, why?"

"I still distrust most humans," Taurus stated. It was another straightforward answer, so straightforward that he could not be lying. "And I'm a police officer; it would have been a smear on my conscience if I left you in the alleyway."

"What makes me different Taurus? I'm human," Rachel said.

"And I'm a minotaur, I'm something from your legends, and according to these legends I am a man-eating, woman defiling beast," Taurus said. "Shouldn't you be frightened around me?"

"I should, I think," Rachel said, looking down at the bowl of red ice, "but I'm not. I was startled by you, but never scared of you. You don't seem like the type of person who would hurt me."

Taurus managed a small smile at the human's polite, quiet truthfulness. She was nervous discussing the matter of her trust, since it brought up several questions about her conduct on her part. Did she even think that he could hurt her? How easily it was for him to do harm to her? Yet, she let him into her house without questions, without any noticeable nervousness.

"But why do you trust me, Taurus?" Rachel said, throwing in her own equally powerful question. "I'm a human. Your people have held a grudge against humans for thousands of years, and all of a sudden you trust me?"

Taurus suddenly shoved a huge spoonful of pomegranate ice into his mouth. He seemed to take time working on this mouthful, working over the answer in his head. He swallowed it.

"I don't know."

The answer was straightforward again, but this time, it didn't seem as rock-steady as his previous answers. Rachel could see through it.

"Have you met other humans? Or do you belong to some type of secret organization that is trying to get your people and my people together? Or are you hiding the fact you like humans in a world that hates humans?" Rachel asked. Taurus didn't have any more dessert to shove into his mouth.

"I've always hated and mistrusted humans. Parts of me still do, Rachel. Humans killed my ancestor, the Minotaur. Even long after his death, they still hunted down and butchered my people. After the slaughter was done, they would write huge ballads about how pure and powerful their heroes were and how weak, horrible, and monstrous my people were," Taurus said. "Humans are a pathetic, weak, dangerous lot."

"Taurus, I'm human," Rachel restated. "You can't just change your mind all of a sudden. I'm not exactly that influential of a person to just suddenly change a person's mind. Something bigger had to have happened to make you think that not all humans are bad."

"Something did," the answer was straightforward again.

Rachel leaned in, to listen.

"Unfortunately I cannot tell you."

There were no laws that forbid Taurus from telling Rachel why he changed his mind about humans—well some humans. He simply could not tell her. He rather preferred her to stay ignorant on this matter. It did not include her and would never come to include her. She was just a person, merely passing him in time.

Rachel's face dropped. It was like trying to push a brick wall, a brick wall with horns and a permanent scowl on his face. "It was delicious, Taurus, thank you. It's my turn, I'll wash the dishes."

Rachel stood up and stacked dishes on top of her plate and headed over to the kitchen. Behind her was Taurus gathered up the remainder of dishes and followed her to the sink.

Taurus stood beside her as she washed dishes, drying them and placing them on shelves with ease. Rachel was just barely five foot four, Taurus had to be at the most eight feet tall, no, Rachel recalculated as she looked up at the towering minotaur beside her, seven foot eight, give or take an inch. Taurus easily placed dishes on shelves Rachel required her handy-dandy step stool to reach. The dishes were cleaned and dried and left over food was placed in the fridge.

"I was wondering Taurus if you would be interested in visiting a few places in the city instead of sitting around the apartment. There is not much to do here besides eat and watch television," Rachel offered. "And study."

"It is too dangerous. I must keep hidden," Taurus said.

"Taurus, you've blown your cover to come drop off books. How about we go to Central Park? It's huge, no one will see you, you'll be fine and you can watch street performers from a safe distance," Rachel said, leaning on the sink. "You'll love it, trust me."

Taurus scratched at his chin. "Rachel, I can't. It's too dangerous."

"You're a police officer, right? You're more dangerous than anything else on the streets. And who is going to believe people if they saw you anyway?" Rachel said. "It would be nice. A walk through the park, that's all it will be, a nice walk in the park after dinner."

"Rachel," Taurus stated, "it is simply too dangerous."

"Taurus you were here twice before, and not once did I see anything in the paper or on the news about a deranged bull-man haunting the streets of New York. You were in the heart of the city standing in an alley with a gun! And no one saw you then! Besides, there are more important things people are focusing on in the media anyway. If anyone saw you, they'll just be turned away. HEADLINE: DERANGED BULLMAN HAUNTS THE STREETS OF NEW YORK! CITY IN TERROR! And right underneath it in smaller letters on the side of the paper; Suicide Bombing in Iraq, seriously Taurus, you don't have a thing to worry about," Rachel said, reaching out and patting the forearm of one of his crossed arms. Taurus looked to be reconsidering.

"I'll get my jacket," Rachel said before Taurus could answer.

&&&

Central Park was easy to find. Rachel did not even have to point it out. In the city of blinding lights and tall buildings, Central Park was a massive depression of darkness marred by the soft, round amber glow of street lights. The roundness and irregularness of the park burst out, threatening to take over the straight, geometric pattern of the city.

Taurus landed his hovercraft in the center of a copse of wide trees.

Rachel stumbled off of the front of the hovercraft. She stumbled for almost ten feet before finally catching herself.

"I don't think I could ever get used to that!" Rachel shouted. She brushed her windblown, terror stricken hair out of her eyes.

The ride was frightening. It wasn't that Taurus was a bad driver; he was a very good driver in fact. Rachel was just plain terrified of heights. In her lifetime, she had attempted to ride three rollercoasters, with disastrous results, and attempted once to ride a tilt-o-whirl. The tilt-o-whirl was barely into its first rotation when Rachel broken down hysterically. The workers stopped it, let Rachel off, and Rachel spent the rest of the day in the med office of the amusement park curled up in a fetal ball on a bed. Rachel spent most of her days at the amusement park on the carousal or the bumper cars or hanging out at the games. She was quite good at ring tosses because of this. The first time she rode the hover craft, she more involved with Taurus that being dangled five hundred feet over the city. And she sat behind him, unable to see completely where they were going through his broad shoulders. Taurus let her ride in front this time. Rachel was horrified. Now she had a front row view of the entire ride.

Rachel's knuckles were still white.

"See Taurus, it's not that bad," Rachel said, spreading out her arms, more to welcome the steady winds close the earth than to persuade Taurus from hiding.

Leisurely, Taurus left the confine of the copse of trees. He snapped a branch off, thick with the buds of flowers and the small, tender leaves of spring. He sniffed it curiously. It was not like any of the trees from home. Most trees were miniature, ornamental versions of what trees once were. The largest trees were in the greenhouses, and the largest trees Taurus had even seen were in Boreas's own personal meditative garden. He reached out to stroke another delicate twig between his massive fingers. He crushed a few of the thin, rubbery leaves between his fingers. He took in the acrid smell of the greenish oil.

"Taurus!" Rachel called out, rousing him from his inspection. She gestured for him to come out. "There's a lot more than the trees here."

His horned head appeared from the brush, the street lights glinted off his gold tipped horns. He sniffed cautiously, taking in his surroundings.

"Are you sure there's no one?" Taurus asked, looking around. He didn't see anyone or hear anyone or smell anyone. Unfortunately, in a city of hideouts and cracks, loud, constant noises, and a collage of vile smells, one, even with a precise sensory system and years of training, could not be safe.

"There's no one. Most people avoid the park at night," Rachel said, "come on!"

She waved to Taurus as she walked away from him. "Come on!"

Slowly Taurus stepped out into the grass. Several slowly deliberate steps later, he paused, halfway between the side walk and the trees. He absorbed the sight. Rachel watched him. At first, Rachel thought he was reconsidering, but then she saw the awe in his eyes, and she could only smile and blush.

In all his years, Taurus had never taken a large expanse of solid earth for granted. His entire life he had been surrounded by buildings and pavement. There were spaces of grass in New Olympus, and many buildings sported small gardens, but nothing compared to this! It was the first time Taurus could walk, and walk, and walk and feel earth, genuine dirt, beneath his feet. There were no buildings over shadowing him. The sky was open and easily seen; no buildings were to be seen from the corner of eyes. The experience was liberating. Only a few times Taurus had an experience this open, and they were all fleeting, but this, this lasted, and for once, the chief of security felt small.

"Taurus."

Rachel elbowed him in the side, jarring him. "Come on, there's a lot more than this."

Taurus followed her, looking at the massive trees, tall and proud, jutting from the earth. He walked along side her, looking over her at the expanse of the park.

"You know for someone from an advanced city, you seem pretty awed by trees and grass," Rachel joked as she walked along side him.

"There's nothing like this on the island," Taurus answered, but his mind was other places. In the distance he could see shadowy forms of people racing, but they did not discern the minotaur and his human charge in the poor lighting. "We do not have space for such things as this."

"Still, this is primitive and simple, you have all those machines and technology," Rachel said.

Taurus shook his head. "For all my years I've lived there Rachel, it is very monotonous. I'm used to it."

"I grew up in the rural America, Taurus, this is nothing compared to the farmlands," Rachel said. "Some people have backyards this big back where I'm from."

"You're not from around here?" Taurus asked, taking his attention from the park scenery to the woman beside him. He recalled the pictures she showed him the week before.

"Nope, I've only been here about three and a half years. I came here to go to school," Rachel said. "I needed a change in scenery, and I could have gone to a community college in western New York, but I wanted more. I need to spread my wings, and I was looking for some new experiences. And New York City is the place for new experiences."

"In deed it is," Taurus chuckled, putting his arms behind his back. He wasn't lying either. "So what is like back home for you? Is it like this?"

Rachel looked up, thinking. She put both her hands into the pockets of her blue and pink jacket. "It's slower. Not as loud. Everything is spaced out so you can see everything when you drive pass. Here, everything moves so fast it's a blur and you see nothing. Life is slow back home, and it's quiet, and calm. You knew everyone in the town and everyone in the town knew who you were. A lot of families could trace their ancestry back centuries to the 1700s. All the buildings were red brick or wood and trees were every where and there were no traffic jams, and at night there were no cars on the street. The sky is always black at nighttime. You could see all the stars no matter where you were in town. The tallest building in my town was eight stories high, and that was an apartment building built five years ago. From what I hear, they haven't built anything since then."

"It must have been a shock coming here," Taurus stated, now enthralled by Rachel's description than the park.

"It was," Rachel said, "for my first two semesters anyway. Then it grew on me. The city has the tendency of doing that. It was kind of hard living in a place where there are no Wal-Marts, and coffee shops and book shops exist on the corner of every street. My town had one coffee shop, and we thought we were pretty high class because of it, even though it sold only regular, decaf or French vanilla coffee, and here if you ordered a coffee, your tongue would get twisted trying to spit out the name of it. If you wanted to get a book, you had to go to Wal-Mart or to a nearby county where they had a Walden's Books or to a garage sale. But after a while, it was kind of nice living here. I mean, it is hell, and often it is, but I guess it beats living in ignorance."

"Your home, it sounds—nice," Taurus said.

"I guess if you're looking for peace and tranquility it is," Rachel said. "But it's like what you said about your home, it just gets boring after a while. I didn't want to be living like that. Everyone in the town lives and dies there, and I didn't want to do that. I wanted to get out, not sure how I was going to get out and how I was going to stay out, but I didn't want to be there. It was just worn out."

"Was it hard for you to move? To just change like that?" Taurus asked. In New Olympus, it is very rare for one to make such a drastic change in one's lifestyle. It was very hard to move to different scenery and be so far away from family.

Rachel looked down at the ground and sighed. "It was hard, it still is. I miss my family; I still call home every week. I used to call home two or three times a day when I first moved here. It's all for the better, I hope anyway."

Taurus nodded.

"What about you, Taurus? Did you want to become a police officer?" Rachel asked.

"I wanted to. My father was a police officer, and I followed in his footsteps," the minotaur answered.

"Do you like doing it?"

"It has its up and downs, but I do it because someone has to do it," Taurus answered.

"That doesn't sound like a good reason to do the job," Rachel stated. "Doing it because someone has to do it?"

Taurus shook his head. "I do it because I am the only person who can do it right, and I like doing it because of that."

"That's a weird reason to do a job, but if it works for you, then I guess it's an okay reason," Rachel said, shaking her head in return. They both did not completely understand each other, and they both knew it, but neither minded.

_Rachel is very understanding for a human_, Taurus thought. _She's not arguing, but she raises good questions anyway. _

The rest of the walk was quiet, between them anyway. There shouts and piercing horns in the distance, the occasional crash. From the nearby apartments and alleyways, the air carried the sound of radios and blaring television sets. The trees above them occasionally shook with the wind or a passing squirrel. Repeatedly, Taurus paused.

They passed a street bench with a homeless man sleeping on it. He woke as they went by him, shook his head groggily, and curled up again on the bench underneath a pile of newspaper. Taurus winced, he couldn't stop staring. Rachel walked faster as he slowed down. This was never a problem in New Olympus, everyone was taken care of. His stomach grew cold. His ears lowered in anger and disgust—humans. A sideways glance at Rachel, Taurus could see the troubled look on her face. She chewed her bottom lip and stared down at the sidewalk.

"I'm sorry, Taurus, I didn't mean for you to see that," Rachel said softly.

"It's all right," Taurus answered.

"Sometimes that happens to people. I feel horrible all the time when I see it. I still haven't gotten use to it," Rachel admitted hoarsely.

Taurus didn't answer.

They walked in silence again. Rachel stopped Taurus as she spotted one of the few street vendors ballsy enough to remain in the park after dark. Taurus stayed in the shadows as Rachel approached the vendor. She came back with two large Styrofoam cups. She held her one out to Taurus. Suspiciously, Taurus took the cup.

"It's lemonade, Taurus," Rachel laughed as he removed the lid. "We'll try to avoid another Pepsi fiasco."

Taurus wasn't amused. He sipped the lemonade, and it tasted similar to drinks from New Olympus, just a little sweeter and the lemon taste was not very strong. And then there was that slightly greasy aftertaste. It seemed liked the air of New York City was permeated with grease. It still tasted good, though.

It was quiet except for the sound of lemonade rushing up plastic, bendy straws. Rachel was enjoying the walk. She enjoyed the feeling of the cool night, the taste of lemonade, the muted sounds of the city and the enhanced sounds of the park, and even more, she enjoyed Taurus's company. It was awkward to her. She would never, ever walk in the park at night, not even with one of her friends. There were still people who loved to walk in the park at night, why Rachel never understood. And this is from a girl whose high school pastime was visiting cemeteries in the middle of the night and taking pictures of gravestones to see if she could get any ghosts on film. She felt safe walking by Taurus, just as if she was walking in broad daylight. Rachel turned to look at Taurus. There was a hollow sucking sound as he finished his cup of lemonade. Taurus tossed the cup into a garbage can twenty feet away. The garbage can was empty, but piles of trash surrounded it. There was a low rumble, forming in Taurus's nasal cavities. Rachel shrunk.

"Two points," Rachel joked nervously. Taurus looked at her, confused. "Nothing."

They just were just going around a turn, when Rachel held her arm out, bringing Taurus to a halt.

"Hear that?" Rachel said.

"Yes, it's people, should we leave then?" Taurus asked.

"No," Rachel answered and walked off the sidewalk and up a hill. "They're street performers. Come on, no one's gonna see us from here."

Rachel indicated a large oak tree and huge bushes. "We'll just sit down and watch for a few minutes, then go back to the apartment. Does that sound okay to you?"

Taurus curtly nodded. It was hard to tell whether he was tired or upset. The scowl he always carried seemed a bit lower on his face. Cows were the most stoic of all animals. Her grandfather told her that. You couldn't tell if they were in pain or hungry or happy by their faces, you had to wait for them to moo and say so. And Taurus wasn't one for talking. And dammit, he put cow expressions to shame. It was obvious he had a range of expressions, but dammit, he was a freaking stone when it came to showing them! With him, a full blown smile might crack his granite façade. Rachel decided it was better safe than sorry.

"You know what, let's go," Rachel said at the top of the hill, turning around. "It's getting late and maybe someone will see us."

There was startled sound, almost like a low moo. "Are you sure?"

"Unless you want to go home," Rachel said.

"Not yet," Taurus said. "I would like to see these performers."

He sat down on the moist grass; just the tips of his horns were noticeable from above the shrubbery. Rachel plopped down on the grass; she could feel the moisture seeping through her jeans.

There were a group of humans down on a brightly lit expanse of concrete. In the center of the pavilion was a fountain, lit by lights. The humans in the center were dressed in bright, clashing clothing. They were dressed in a similar style, though each had on a single, different color. The other humans watching wore heavier, duller clothing. They looked like a single, monotone colored mass. The performers, on the other hand, looked as if a rainbow had disbanded and its colors bounded in a display of speed and flexibility.

Taurus was quite amused. There were performers in New Olympus who performed in the theatres. Taurus never had the time to see these shows, he knew basically what went on, but never seen the acrobatics first-hand. He wondered how flexible the human body was; how it compared to New Olympian bodies. Of course, minotaurs were not flexible, neither were centaurs, but Cyclopes, nymphs, and satyrs (with their lack of large horns, clunky, muscular limbs, and lack of extra limbs) were highly flexible and capable of a variety of poses. Originally, Taurus thought the humans' performance would be mediocre, poses he was not capable of, but nothing special. Human bodies seemed so frail and inflexible.

Four humans lined up and one, dressed in orange and yellow, took a running jump, leaping over his cohorts and doing a back flip before landing on his feet. Taurus rose slightly in his seat behind the bush. There cheers from the crowd. The man in orange and yellow pulled a person from the crowd and lined her up with his companions. He took another running leap, landed on his hands and walked several feet. Taurus's ears pricked in the excitement. The crowd cheered the performers and the woman on.

Taurus and Rachel watched for several minutes. The performance was just building to a climax when Rachel felt something pressed against the back of her skull.

"Hand over you fuckin' money," a voice, half garbled, said from behind her. There was another jab into the base of her skull. "HAND OVER YOUR MOTHER FUCKING WALLET OR I WILL FUCKING BLOW YOUR FUCKING BRAINS OUT!"

Rachel turned her face slightly and received a painful prod into the bony expanse of her cheek. The man stood above her, a handgun held in his hand. His eyes were glazed over from a drugged stupor. His skin was unnaturally pale, a pasty white, as if the blood had been drained from it, and his eyes sucked up the blood. Foam poured between his ruined teeth and out the corners of his mouth.

His hand shook violently, he didn't seem to be thinking right, but Rachel still didn't know what do. A large grey elbow hit the man right into the stomach, right below his ribcage. Foam specked from the man's mouth as he fell backwards. The gun fell from his hand and right into Taurus's hand. The minotaur crushed the gun between his massive fingers. He stood up, fist clenched tightly. He looked down on the man and held his hand out, palm side down. He opened his fist, allowing the bits and pieces of the gun fall onto the man, shaking violently from either the hit, or the drugs, or fear. He sprinkled the pieces on the man as if he was sprinkling salt on a filet of fish.

It was disgusting, simply disgusting in Taurus's eyes. He had nearly arrested the man by instinct; in fact he had his hand on his hip to remove phantom cuffs. Damn. He was so used to carrying cuffs and badges, that he felt like he still held them. Now all he could do was glare at the man, clenching his fist in anger, the veins popping. Humans, only humans could resort to this, becoming this. It was a disgusting a thought.

Rachel gasped in shock. Taurus stood over the man, obviously deep in thought. How Taurus's people treated criminals or arrested them was alien to her, but she prayed to dear god Taurus had enough sense not to kick the man's head in or kill him.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?" the man screeched. The pavilion grew quiet. The man was half screeching, half crying, surprisingly, for the blow he took to the stomach. "WHAT THE FUCK? GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME! HELP! HELP!"

"Oh my god, someone's getting mugged!" a woman screamed. There was a thunder of footsteps on concrete.

Rachel, frozen momentarily, stood up, "Uh Taurus, I think this will be a good time to—oomph!"

Taurus swiped her up in one arm and ran down the hill. Rachel's feet weren't even touching the ground, but came very close to dragging on the pavement. Her nails dug into his forearm as Rachel was taken on the wildest ride of her life. She was slipping, and prayed that if she did fall from Taurus's grasp, she didn't get a speed burn when she rolled on the pavement. Rachel didn't slide from Taurus's grasp until they reached his hidden hovercraft. She fell at the edge of the copse of trees. Her jacket and shirt were nearly pulled up over her head. Next to that little indignity, Rachel received little more than a bruise tailbone. Taurus stumbled a few feet, before landing snout first into the dirt in an extremely awkward position. If it were a different situation and not Taurus, Rachel would have laughed. The minotaur sat up and shook off. He turned to face Rachel.

"Come on!" he said, pulling her up by her shoulder. As he pulled Rachel to the hovercraft, Rachel pulled her jack and shirt over her bra. She nearly caused both of them to stumble. Taurus flung himself on the hovercraft.

With equal eagerness, Rachel jumped behind the minotaur. She flung her arms around his waist (it was like hugging a tree trunk wrapped in carpet), and pressed her forehead against the center of his back and forced her eyes as tightly closed as they could go as she prepared for one helluva speedy lift off.

The normally quiet buzzing engines of the hovercraft, roared into the night sky as Taurus slammed his hoof down onto the gas. Rachel desperately held on for dear life.

_Twenty minutes later and above Rachel's apartment…_

Taurus looked back at his charge. Her eyes were still pressed closed and arms, as stiff as branches, retained their grasp around his midsection.

"Miss Rachel Wesley, we are safe now. You can let go—anytime," Taurus said into the wind. "That man can't hurt you. We're miles away from the park."

He prodded her, tapping on her head. The experience must have been terrifying for Rachel.

"Oh, dammit, Taurus! I'm terrified of heights!" Rachel cried out. "Just tell me when we're at my apartment."

"We're at your apartment, you can let go of me now," Taurus said, startled. The hold weakened and Rachel looked down. They were hovering ten feet above her roof.

"Oh…"

Taurus lowered his vehicle. Rachel stumbled off and fell to her knees. She held her head and moaned. It was one hell of a night. She thought life was convulsive when she moved to New York. Now it just got a bit more erratic and exciting with Taurus. And just a bit more interesting.

Despite the night's excitement, it was a bad night. Rachel knew that, and she knew Taurus was just a bit disgusted in the human race. She thought his hatred was miniscule, but he was showing his true colors tonight.

"Is life always this _exciting_ in this city?" Taurus mumbled as he stood beside her. Rachel looked up at him.

"Not like that, but it is exciting," Rachel said back. The minotaur sat down beside her.

"This city is disgusting," Taurus stated. "How can you humans live like this? We do not have these sorts of problems back home."

"We just live and deal, Taurus," Rachel blurted. "Some of us can't help it. Not all of us can get help. A lot of people try to get out of their situations, and continually get knocked down. Some people have no other options and some just come into hard situations. And a lot of people try to help other people in bad situations. And there are a lot of people trying to help New York. Sometimes, people don't want to be helped and sometimes people give up."

"Rachel, look at this! Your city is dirty, there is trash everywhere. People are pointing guns at each other's head and trying to steal money. There are people sleeping on the streets. Back in my home—"

"This isn't your home Taurus. This is mine. This is where I live; these are the problems I face in my world. We're not an island; we're not a small group of people. We're a giant continent with millions of people, millions of problems. We're not technologically advanced, so don't expect us to be at the same level as your people," Rachel stated. Taurus was taken back. Rachel cupped her hand over her mouth. Maybe she said a little too much, a little too quickly. Rachel pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face into her knees. "I'm sorry Taurus. This night was shitty. We both could have gotten killed and discovered. It's my all fault."

Taurus's shoulders fell. "It was a good night Rachel. And I'm the one who should be sorry."

Rachel did not answer. Taurus sighed and continued.

"If you could over look the mad dash through the park, the trash, the homeless, and the mugging that wasn't, it was a good night. We do not have trees this big and we do not have so much grass. I overlooked the good things. It is my fault. I did not mean to upset you," Taurus said. "I am sorry for being so—"

"Bullheaded," Rachel finished his statement. Her head was brought up from her knees, but she remained curled up in a ball. She smiled at the minotaur. Taurus returned the smile belatedly.

"You have a horrible sense of humor," Taurus said looking away.

"It's better than not having one," Rachel retorted. If the night was a little lighter, Rachel could have seen Taurus roll his eyes in defeat.

Rachel leaned over, allowing her weight to rest against Taurus's arm. Taurus jerked. "Thanks for saving my life tonight."

"You're welcome," Taurus answered. "It is my job."

"I guess I owe you," Rachel said, standing up. "Since you seemed so obsessed with debt."

"I like pancakes," Taurus answered from his seat.

"Huh?" Rachel said.

"Pancakes, as in breakfast," Taurus said.

"Actually, I was thinking more in the line of waffles," Rachel said with a chuckle. "Or French Toast."

"Waffles?" Taurus asked.

"Pancakes' older, crispy brothers," Rachel answered. "And we'll add some blueberries to them, just to make the debt equal. After all, my life is worth more than just plain waffles. Maybe we'll toss in some Cool Whip too, just to be safe."

"I do not think it's worth that much," Taurus stated deadpan.

"What?" Rachel gagged.

"I was only joking," Taurus said.

"You're not very good at it," Rachel said. "I'm not laughing."

"Who was the one with the bull joke earlier?" Taurus responded matter-of-factly as he stood up. He wiped the grit off of his legs. Rachel did not respond. She stood only a few feet away from him with her arms wrapped around herself. It was chilly and windy up on the roof. The spring air carried a bite to it. Taurus, dressed in his harness and kilt, shivered.

"Let's go in," Rachel said.

"I have had enough excitement for one night," Taurus stated following her down the ladder.

He yawned loudly as he stretched, clearing out his lungs. It was a bellow, Rachel jumped as she opened the sliding door of her balcony. The numerous barking dogs in the neighborhood silenced simultaneously. Windows opened and there was startled chatter from nearby apartments.

"I'm ready to retire in for the night," Taurus answered, cracking his shoulders. Rachel smiled.

"That's good," Rachel said. "I was thinking about tomorrow night. And I've got some great things planned. Get rested up. I've got a lot of things I want you to see."

Smiling in the corner of his mind, Taurus could only imagine what tomorrow had in store for him.

"Exuse me, Rachel," Taurus said as they walked into living room, "what exactly is in pepperoni?"

_The Song is "Paint it Black" by Rollingstones. It's just a fun song. I felt it was better than "Broken". _


	5. The Life and Times of Bambi

The Life and Times of Bambi

"Taurus? Taurus? TAURUS!"

Taurus squatted down into the lengthy dune grass, one of the few of the island's original, remaining fauna, snickering. He could hear his mother about sixty yards away, just turning around the bend in the beach.

"Taurus? Taurus? Where are you? This is not a fun little game you are playing little calf," his mother cried out again, her voice was on the verge of anger, crackling with alarm. "TAURUS, come here now little calf! Your father is not going to be happy with you!"

Taurus risked a peek through the golden dune grass. Only the tip of his snout was visible, parting the thick stalks of the grass so that his eyes could see. His mother was now only twenty yards away. Taurus quickly jerked his snout back into the grass. He smothered another childish snicker.

He could see her, but she could not distinguish him through the multitude of high grass. His mother stood in on the beach, her arms crossed, the basket of vegetables shaking as she tapped one delicate, golden brown finger—the color of finely polished wood—on the braided basket handle. Her hair, wavy, thick, and colored like ivy crawling up a stone wall, fell to her knees. Streaks of red-brown and yellow-green ran through her hair as well as small, tiny heart shaped leaves and small five petal star flowers. She walked a few more feet, her pine green robe dragged in the surf, but she did not care. The whereabouts of her seven year old son was of utmost importance to her.

"Taurus! Come now! I promise you no scolding if you come now, but don't you dare prolong this much longer," his mother called out again. "Taurus!"

The scent of myrrh was heavy in the air, the odor of a dryad's tears. Taurus felt maybe it was time to come out of hiding.

"Daphne, what are you doing down here?" a deep voice asked from above the beach, at the edge of the city.

"Oh your son and his little games he likes to play on his mother when she takes him shopping," his mother responded.

His father sighed. "He's always my son when he is in trouble."

From the blind of grass, Taurus watched his father slide down the dunes on his hooves. He landed by Daphne, towering over her by a foot and a half. His father was still dressed in his chief of security uniform; he just finished work, an hour earlier than expected.

Taurus's earlier proposal of returning to his mother changed with the appearance of his father. What started at a little trick was turning into a game of hide-and-seek involving the whole family. His mother's disposition had a tendency to soften with his father nearby. He still would rather his father to find him than his mother though.

Taurus was the only, will remain the only, child of Daphne and Asterius. The birth of a minotaur child was always hard on a female New Olympian, with the exception of female Cyclops and centaurs whose large bodies were adapted enough to carry the babies of the minotaurs. There were no such thing as female minotaurs, and the females of other races would do nicely for procreation of the race. Early in the minotaurs' history they bred with human females (this is a forgotten and overlooked part of history) before finally their fellow New Olympians started to interbreed with the minotaurs. Nymphs were often the preferred mates of minotaurs and of many other male New Olympians whose race gave them no females. There were a variety of nymphs; oceanids, naiads, dryads (like Daphne), nereids, nyseides, and oreades. All came in female; there was no such thing as a male nymph. The male child would always be a minotaur while the female child would be whatever a race the mother happened to be. Taurus's own birth was particularly traumatic on his mother, not only was Taurus's born with a head of hair, but he was one of the few minotaurs to be born with their horns already bursting from their horn buds. His mother nearly died giving birth to him, and the trauma caused her to be unable to become pregnant again. But with Taurus's behavior sometimes, it was doubted she would ever want to have another child.

Naturally, Taurus was a spoiled child. He was always tempted to test his parents' limitations, and often temptation got the best of him. His father's philosophy on childraising was simple; let a child be a child, after all, childhood was fleeting, maturity is forever. Mother was a little more serious; she went through plenty of pain to bring him into this world, and she did not expect anymore pain from him after birthing him. In later years, Taurus wondered how severe the pain of labor his mother suffered was. His mother told him he was a good son when he became older, but his memories speak otherwise. He knew he was a bad kid, but how bad was the birthing process that his own behavior paled in comparison? He shuddered often when he thought of this.

"Oh don't fret, Daphne, we'll find him," Asterius said, setting his grey hand (a darker shade than Taurus's own coat of fur, but not because of age, his father was just darker in color) onto Daphne's shoulder. "He can't hide forever."

But he could try. He loved trying much to his parents' disdain.

Taurus darted up the dune behind the plot of grass.

"There he is!" Asterius shouted, noticing the form of his son from the corner of his eye. "Taurus get back here!"

The sand in the dune gave away under his hoofs, and Taurus nearly stumbled backwards into his father's clutches. But a sudden bolt of energy sent Taurus over the edge of the dune. His father's fingers closed on nothing. Asterius fell backwards, sliding down the dune.

"TAURUS!" he bellowed from his position on his back. His legs kicked as he tried to propel himself upright.

Asterius had to go around the dune to chase after his son; Taurus's mad dash up the dune left it completely unscalable by his massive father. Daphne hiked her robes up to her knees and chased after her husband and her son.

"You get back here now!" Asterius exclaimed, sand pouring out of his uniform with each stride. "NOW!"

Asterius was gaining on his son. A few yards away Taurus could see where the dunes abruptly cut off. Taurus quickly prepared himself. He slid down the dunes with ease. His father was forced to make an abrupt stop. Unfortunately, Daphne could not respond as quickly. Her body, though tiny, smacked Asterius's backend hard, sending the minotaur over the dune. Asterius slid down on his face. Daphne hung for a second over the dune before the edge gave away and she joined her husband at the bottom.

"TAURUS!" they exclaimed as their son raced out into the ocean.

Now they sounded angry.

Taurus froze from his position. He was out into the ocean, up to his shoulders, about knee high on his father and up to his mother's hips. He was hoping to end it soon on a better note. Taurus knew he pushed the wall of luck far enough. Push it any farther and it was going to end up collapsing on him.

"I COMING!" Taurus exclaimed, his boyish voice lost in the waves. He trudged through the water. It was like the trudging through cement.

Oh no.

The ocean began to have a mind of its own. The consistency grew to the thickness of clay. Taurus pushed and pushed through the wall of water until he could push no more. Then the water pushed back. It swirled around his ankles then tightened, pulling him back.

The riptide, Taurus had completely overlooked it.

"MAMA! DADDY!" he screamed as his legs were pulled out from underneath him. He found himself lying on his stomach in the ocean. Water poured into his mouth and nose and obscured his vision. He reached out, the upper part of his hands and the fingers only visible. "MAMA! DADDY! I'M SORRY!"

He was pulled under with the last utterance. He could not see anything but the swirl of water, light, and sand. His own hair mixed in with the water. He could just see the fingertips of his hands, outstretched hopelessly in the water and his hooves above him. He sank, his eyes burning with tears as salty as the ocean water. He could only focus upwards.

_I'm sorry. Please save me. I'm not a bad boy. I'll never do this again. Please don't hate me, please don't leave me here. _

Something grabbed hold of the small expanse of his right horn and a handful of hair and pulled him upwards.

&&&

Taurus woke gagging. Water flew out of his mouth and leaked out of his nostrils. He clutched his chest and realized the fur was damp, but not with sweat. His eyes widen as he tried to put events and places together in a sleep boggled mind. His chest heaved with each breath of air.

Taurus was sitting a wooden box with leather cushions around the edge. Water came up to his thighs. He felt unspeakably cold. What torture is this? Then he noticed he was sitting on the dark blue, deflated plastic skin of the waterbed mattress. The corners of the mattress, not compressed under his weight, stuck up in the corners. His pillow was now a deflated, lumpy dead weight and the blanket he pushed aside earlier had sunk in the pool of water.

Rachel told him sleeping on a waterbed was an experience. She was not lying, though unfortunately this was not the experience Taurus wanted and not the experience Rachel meant.

Rachel introduced Taurus to the waterbed and then left. She was too exhausted to explain the waterbed to him. Taurus poked the waterbed a few times then applied pressure on it with his hand. Finally he stripped and laid down on the waterbed. It rolled back and forth, as if the ocean itself was contained in its thick, blue skin. Finally, it stopped rolling. Taurus's legs were up higher than his top heavy upper torso. His heavier upper body pushed the water downward towards the bottom. He groaned and rolled over onto his stomach. The water rolled again. Taurus's chin bounced around wildly.

It took almost an hour before Taurus was comfortable enough to sleep.

Due to his horns, Taurus slept on his stomach or back to avoid the weight of his head resting on the tip of one horn, which either results in a broken horn or more often the neck cramp from Hades. His mind was racing with the mugging earlier, and left his body very, very agitated. Asterius was a restless sleeper, and Taurus inherited it. At some point in the night Taurus's horn must have punctured the mattress during one of his turns.

Water was pouring on the floor through the faulty seals in the bed. Taurus leaned over to see that the floor was completely awash in the water. The shag carpet was sucking the water up like a sponge, and Taurus knew it most likely had already seeped into Rachel's living room onto the faux hardwood floors.

Shit.

Taurus leapt out of bed. His hooves landed on the orange and brown carpet with a splat sound. The carpet had sucked up as much water as it possibly could and the water was starting to pool in areas of the carpet. Taurus flung open the door. A stream of water spread across the floor.

Carefully Taurus attempted to navigate the perilous floor. He made it pass the widening stream of water, but unfortunately he was still wet, and dripping. He slipped on the water, pooling at his feet. His feet came out from under him. He slid the last few feet to Rachel's door on his rear and lower back and was only stopped on his wild ride by Rachel's door.

THUMP!

Rachel was woken up from her dreaming state by it. She shook her head thinking it was only Mrs. Brigleston on one of her random "searches" down in the garage or maybe Taurus woke up to go to the bathroom and slammed a door. She pressed her head back into the pillow and snuggled into its cottony goodness.

There was another bang as the shelf by her door was shaken free with the reverberations from the crash. Small glass ornaments on the shelf shattered on the floor. All this was followed by a lengthy, low moan.

Rachel yanked her head up from the pillow. She was completely wide awake now.

Uh-oh.

Taurus cupped the back of his head, throbbing with the fall. The door to Rachel's room flung open. The light flicked on. The stunning light caused Taurus to groan even louder. Rachel stood above him in a worn t-shirt that hung almost to her knees. The faces of three blonde haired girls were on the shirt along with the word "Hanson". Pink boxers covered in goldfish peeked at the bottom of the shirt.

"Taurus what happened?" Rachel exclaimed. She went down on her knees beside the drenched minotaur.

There was a streak of water on the ground where Taurus slid. Rachel noticed the pool of water, widening, covering her floor. There was a dripping sound from the spare bedroom.

"OH SHIT!" she screamed standing up in shock. Then she looked down at Taurus lying on the floor. His feet were still up in the air and he was grimacing with pain. Rachel glimpsed undergarments the color of amethyst. Her voice became incredibly small and drawn off, while her eyes became incredibly large. "SSSSHHHIIIiiitttttt…"

"Rachel, forgive me," Taurus said softly from the floor. Rachel looked up at Taurus's face, did he notice? "I didn't mean to cause you this distress. I believe I punctured your waterbed when I rolled over."

Rachel sat down on the floor with a thump, her mind rolling with disbelief at the scene. "I guess we have to start cleaning up. So is your clothing dryer friendly or does it have to be dry-cleaned?"

&&&

"The living room is dry," Taurus spoke over the motor of the Craftsman vacuum. He picked up the mop and bucket and carefully snuck out onto the patio. He dumped out the water onto the alleyway. It surged down the sidewalk before emptying into a grate covered gutter. He set the soaked mop and bucking against the side of the door. It was just about sunrise, they've been cleaning for over three and half hours. "How's the bedroom?"

Rachel pushed out the full vacuum cleaner. This was the umpteenth time she emptied it so far. The fluid inside sloshed around. She sat down on the floor by it, exhausted. She was soaked in sweat and water.

"The bed's empty, and I've got most of the water. The floor is still wet though, I'll have to give it another two or three run downs. Who knew shag carpet smelt like wet dog when it was wet? God, I can still smell it out here!" Rachel said, pushing a few strands of hair plastered to her face away.

Taurus looked at the wall from the corner of his eyes, not letting them focus on Rachel. "Yeah, the carpet…"

"Here, you go empty that out, I'm gonna go get a shower. I've got carpet strands stuck to me and I feel like a 70s Bigfoot right now," Rachel said, pulling her clingy t-shirt out, it was coated in orange threads, "and I smell like one too."

Rachel went into the bathroom. Taurus lifted the vacuum up with ease on one shoulder and dumped it down into the alleyway. He winced in mild disgust at the smell of the putrid water, dyed the color of the carpet. Humans have horrible decorating tastes.

Taurus let the contents of the vacuum leak out and walked into the living room. He scratched at his thigh underneath his improvised kilt. The tablecloth Rachel lent him to wear was getting uncomfortable. He untied the tablecloth and unfolded it. He spread it out on top of the couch to dry. From the table he picked up a hair dryer and began to blow dry his kilt. The hair dryer died out earlier when he tried to dry himself, but after a few hours of cooling down, the hair dryer was ready to run again.

On such short notice, like the kilt, it was the best Rachel could do. Taurus did not know what dry-cleaning was, and his clothing was studded with metal buttons and Rachel knew that those would bang up the inside of the dryer, which was not hers. After a mad dash through all her closets and drawers, the only possible items of fabric to fit his massive body Rachel found were a tablecloth with a fruit print, a few white cotton sheets, and the spare sheet to her bed. The spare sheet happened to have a cow print (a hand-me down from her cousins), and Rachel decided, though it would be amusing, not to bother. She did try the white sheets first, and they clung to Taurus's soaking wet form and were soaked easily, but the worse (okay, maybe it wasn't that _bad_, but still) had to be she could see his undergarments through the fabric. She gave him the tablecloth. To dry his clothing, Rachel loaned him a hairdryer as she cleaned up. Taurus ended up drying himself instead of his clothing. He almost finished drying the hair under his right arm when the hairdryer overheated and died.

His kilt felt dry enough, but his harness was still wet. Taurus slid the kilt on. He was just buckling it up when Rachel came out of the shower. She had a towel wrapped around her head and was wearing a pair of cutoff shorts, but she still wore that t-shirt.

"You can borrow the shower Taurus," Rachel said, "unless you don't want to take two baths in one day."

He had to admire her sense of humor, but he turned down her offer. "I'm quite fine, Rachel, but maybe later."

He had seen and dreamed about enough water already.

"Okay," Rachel said, smiling. She turned and headed up to the kitchen. "You want some coffee or tea?"

"Tea," Taurus answered. He got a glimpse at the back of Rachel's shirt. There was a line of dates and places in black and red print down her back. "Rachel, what's with your shirt?"

Human fashions were a far cry from New Olympian fashions. Human fashions varied greatly, from almost nothing to head to toe garb in a variety of colors and designs. New Olympian style did not stray far Grecian and Cretan style, of course a few alterations had to be made clothing to the variety of different races. Otherwise, clothing style was very constant in New Olympus. Designs were not common on clothing in New Olympus, New Olympians preferred to keep clothing simple in bold colors, lines, and studs. As well, Taurus's people were not frightened at the sight of bare skin. Like their predecessors, bare skin and the body were considered beautiful, even if that body happened to be blue, or scaly, or furry. Clothing often covered up the bare minimum, but that was often left up to the wearer what they wore. In the end, no one really cared. Through all the billboards, TV shows, and magazines in the human world Taurus had seen, he could only come up to the conclusion that humans were obsessed with style. Taurus was a little bemused by Rachel's shirt with the faces of three girls on it; things like such were not seen at all in New Olympus.

Rachel stretched the front of the wrinkly shirt out. "This? It's just a gag gift of a boy band t-shirt from my older sister."

"You humans…," Taurus seemed to be mulling, "…have a very strange sense of fashion."

Rachel could have made a good retort showcase her own ignorance in the fashion as Taurus showcased his in human fashion, and she could have made that retort quite quickly. Currently Taurus was sitting on her couch in just a loincloth, his broad chest and shoulders bare. He was lucky Gladiator was one of her favorite movies. Rachel just shook her head and smiled. Not to mention earlier that day she happened to spy his purple undergarments—which, by the way, he did not even bother covering up. Rachel felt her face burning as she took breakfast burritos from the freezer, and it was still burning as she brewed up coffee and a cup of tea. It died as she returned to the couch with a plate of burritos and a cup of tea and mug of coffee.

Taurus did not even acknowledge her. He had the television on again and was using a pen to press the tiny buttons. Rachel held the cup of tea at of his eye. Taurus settled on a channel and took the tea. Delicately he held the teacup by its handle; it was lost between his massive fingers.

"Thank you," he said.

The tea was not as herbal as New Olympian tea, which was biting to the taste, clearing up the mouth and the nose as the drinker sipped it. This tea was sweeter, less concentrated in taste, but it was waking him up. Rachel picked up a wrap and ate it as the morning news came on. News was always on T.V. in New York, at anytime, and news flashes were common in the city that never sleeps. There were 24 hours for anything and everything to happen, and quite often, it did.

The news was mostly updates—updates on stars, updates on sitcoms, government updates, and a very lengthy report on the progress of Wall Street. After a flash of varied reports and varied reporters, the news slowed down to a list of incidents. An African American reporter sat at desk with a book of papers in her hands.

"A series of muggings in Central Park came to an abrupt and strange halt last night around eleven," a female reporter said. "In a two month period, over forty people have been mugged in a certain section Central Park. In each case, a gun was use, and eight people have been shot with only one fatality, a forty-seven year old school teacher. Up until now, there have been no links between the muggings until last night."

The image of a young man appeared up on the screen, hair wild, eyes red with huge baggage underneath them, and noticeable dark stubble on his jaw line. He held up a sign with a list numbers against his chest. His head was held high in cockiness and there was a noticeable smirk despite his drug crazed eyes.

"This is an earlier mug shot of Steve 'Alvie' Danielson who through his gun was linked to several of the muggings, and an investigation is in progress to connect Danielson to several other crimes including two unsolved homicides. Currently Danielson is in a local hospital after his last attempt resulted in a victim fighting back. A group of street performers and spectators found him. He claimed he was shot in the stomach, and the spectators called the police. As he was moved from the scene, police found drug paraphernalia as well as an unloaded handgun nearby. Through the handgun and descriptions, the police linked Danielson to the crimes. At the hospital, Danielson was proven to have no sign of gunshot wounds. When asked of his assailants, Danielson claimed to have been attacked by a man with horns, dressed as Russell Crow."

At that quote, a spray of brown-red tea hit the television screen. The egg, cheese, and bacon insides of Rachel's burrito hit the maroon rug with a plop. Taurus coughed, holding his chest.

"Tests are being performed on Danielson state of mind at the time of the mugging. Several witnesses claimed to see young woman in her early to mid twenties being dragged away from the scene by a large adult male. Unfortunately, all reports are varied, and because the attack took place at night, police are unable to create profiles of the two other witnesses."

Taurus glared at Rachel, the empty teacup cracked in his hand.

"What? You weren't in the headlines! I didn't say anything about being on television!" she exclaimed. She stood up and looked at the tea blurred screen. "I'll go get the mop."

&&&

"I was thinking Taurus…" Rachel started, "about a change in scenery, someplace new for you to see. I've got this great idea I think you'll love."

"I'm leaving tonight, Rachel," Taurus said, cutting her off. He carried over an old newspaper with the shattered teacup. He dumped it into the garbage. "It's too dangerous. Now that the city knows."

"Well, I wasn't intending for that to happen," Rachel said, throwing her arms up in the air. "Honestly Taurus! And why are you upset? You nailed a bad guy, a killer, a mugger! Aren't you police officer?"

"Yes," Taurus answered. "But unfortunately, Rachel, that is not going to help in this situation. I may have helped in the detainment of a criminal, but that is not going to mean I am safe."

"Taurus, I bet you that in just a few hours, no one is going to care. There's gonna be something else on the news, another mugging or some sports junk, and the little Central Park incident is going to be long forgotten. And if it is mentioned on the news later, people are not going to care. They'll just tune out, they want the news to be over so that they can watch Desperate Housewives or some other sitcom," Rachel said. "I bet you."

She pointed to Taurus with an accusing finger. "I bet you no one cares; in fact, I bet you people are laughing their asses off at this whole ordeal. I'll bet you they won't play it all on TV and this morning is the last New York City heard of the Central Park Bullman."

"I don't know which sounds better," Taurus stated, "the world finding out about the existence of the New Olympians or half of this city laughing about me."

&&&

"What are you doing?" Taurus asked, as Rachel came out of her closet carrying an armful of jars filled with some kind of waxy, light green material.

"Nothing," Rachel answered, striking a match, "just lighting some candles, to get rid of the wet carpet smell."

A smell rushed Taurus's nostrils. He blanched. "What is that smell?"

"Cucumber melon," Rachel answered nervously, placing a massive mint-green candle on the counter. She kneeled down into a bottom cupboard. As she dug through the cupboard, Taurus headed to the bathroom.

"I think I will take you up on that offer for a shower now," Taurus said. The cucumber melon smell was overpowering.

"Okay," Rachel said, standing up. She looked to be hiding something behind her back. Taurus flicked his ears. It turned out to be nothing more than a can of cleaner.

The door to the bathroom closed. Rachel waited till the shower was on before she sprayed down the couch, Taurus's clothing, and the room with cinnamon scented potpourri.

&&&

_Later that night…_

"You're going to love what I have planned for the night," Rachel said as she finished zipping up her backpack. She unfolded a map. "We'll be far away from people, especially muggers. In fact, there will be no people here at all, at least not at this time of the year or at this time of night…"

"Where are we going?" Taurus stated, cutting her off like a cleaver to a chopping block. He crossed his arms for emphasis.

"A national park," Rachel said, holding up a map. "People only come there during the summer and during the day."

"A national park? Is it anything like Central Park, that forsaken place we went last night?" Taurus said, stepping out onto the balcony.

"Not at all! It's not a thing like it," Rachel said. "You have to see it to believe it. I just thought maybe we should go around and look at some of the sights around New York City, but you seemed so amazed by the trees, I thought maybe you'll like the National Park."

Rachel picked up a blockish thing sitting on her balcony. It smelt like burning rubber and oil.

"What's that thing?" Taurus asked.

"A spotting light," Rachel answered. "We used to use them back at my home to spot deer and owls in the woods. My landlady uses it to spot 'hooligans' or stray dogs or stray cats in the alleyway. I've got some extra flashlights in my backpack. I want you to see some of the forest animals. They won't come close to horses, though."

Rachel handed him the heavy spotlight and climbed up the ladder behind him.

&&&

"Must we travel along these highways?" Taurus said, looking down at the snakelike roadways light up by thousands of car headlights.

"It's the only way I can get there," Rachel said, taking out the flashlight from between her teeth. "The map only has roads on it. We can't find our way there in the dark."

Rachel sat in front of Taurus. Her view of roads underneath them was blocked by her map, spread from Taurus's one wrist to his other. She was perfectly fine with that, meanwhile; Taurus was more than miffed by the map rustling in the wind.

"How much farther?" Taurus asked.

"Mmmph hummppph," Rachel responded with the flashlight in her mouth. Rachel took the flashlight out of her mouth. "Did you have to wait until the flashlight in my mouth? About another five miles."

"Good," Taurus responded. In the distance Taurus could the traffic thinning out and a looming expanse of darkness, much like the park but appearing thicker and much more unrestrained.

Soon they were over the forest. Taurus could make out patches in the tree canopy, but he saw no places to land. Rachel directed him to large clearing with about four picnic tables, a garbage can, and overgrown fire pits.

Taurus landed his hovercraft in the space. Rachel waited for him to dismount before tumbling off of the hovercraft. She held onto the rough, splintery edges of a picnic table, regaining her breath. The flashlight, still on, lay at her feet, its beam of light pointing into the darkness of the forest. The only sound that came from Taurus was his booted hooves crunching on the ground. There was a soft huff.

Rachel, still grasping the table for support, turned to see Taurus staring upwards at the pine trees. He snorted, his hot breath dissipating into the night's cool air, as he absorbed the sight of hundreds of thousands of massive trees. Trees never grew to be this tall or wide in the trunk in New Olympus. Thousands of years ago trees once grew this tall and this plentiful on New Olympus. Settlers cut down the trees for builds and fires, and the expanse of the city soon covered all available space. Most trees now on New Olympus were grown for cultivation, but they never grew to be very large. The "freer" trees were miniature, more attractive, versions of earlier trees and they grew on street corners and in yards. The tallest only came to be twice Taurus's height. But these trees had to be ten to twelve times his height. Buildings in New Olympus of course were taller than these trees, but never had Taurus encountered trees this tall or mighty.

Rachel walked up beside him. She was shaky. "Those are pine trees. They're fairly common in this area."

"They're massive," Taurus said. "Trees never grow this tall in New Olympus. We don't have the space for them to grow this tall."

"Our government sets aside space for the trees to grow. This is protected land; no one can come in and cut down the trees or tear up the land," Rachel said.

"Your government protects this?" Taurus said, looking down at her finally. Rachel nodded.

"There are a lot of protected spots. This isn't the only one. In fact, New York has several special parks, so that years in the future, people can still come to them and the animals still have a place to live," Rachel answered. "Does your home, New Olympus, have that?"

Rachel asked the question slowly, timidly, trying not to offend him.

"The forests and many of the animals were gone long ago," Taurus answered, kneeling down. He picked up a pine cone, "long before we had time create places like this."

The pine cone disappeared into the satchel at his side.

Rachel dug her toe into the earth. "Oh."

Rachel passed Taurus a flashlight. "Here. We'll try and stay in this area. Stay close and don't get lost."

She handed him a whistle. "If you do get lost, blow this. I have one also, so if I get lost, I'll blow it."

"You thought of everything didn't you?" Taurus said, holding the dinky, brightly colored whistle between his fingers.

"I was a girl scout for fifteen years of my life with over two hundred badges plus her gold award," Rachel said. She held up some bars. "Granola?"

&&&

"How big is America, Rachel?" Taurus asked as they walked along a trail.

"Hmmm," Rachel thought. "Big. It's a continent. I've never really looked into how large it is, but it's huge. It takes about one week to travel by car from the east shore to the west shore, and there is a whole lot more than America. There's Canada attached to America, then Mexico, and attached to Mexico is South America, and attached to Canada is Alaska, an American state. But America is not the only continent. There's Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica."

"And humans live on all of these?" Taurus asked.

"Most, yes," Rachel answered.

"Just how many humans are there in the world, Rachel?" Taurus asked.

"Billions," she answered. Taurus sucked in his breath.

"Billions? And there are just humans?" Taurus asked. "No other races?"

"You can say that," Rachel answered. "There are the gargoyles in New York City. A lot of people do not want to accept them as intellectual equals or even as human. I've never met them though or seen them. They're pretty reclusive, or I'm just always in the wrong place at the wrong time. And with all this development in technology, I've heard a few rumors as well about there being other creatures. But that's just me; really, I don't get out that often and look for this stuff."

"Indeed," Taurus answered, scratching at his chin thoughtfully. "Would you accept them as…human? These gargoyles?"

"I would accept them as equals, as people, not humans," Rachel said. "Human is just a race, a name. But all together, we're just people."

"Indeed, are you this open minded?" Taurus asked.

"Well I've never considered it, seriously Taurus. I've never considered there ever being other races other than humans," Rachel said. "But then I met you, and you're a person, a talking, thinking, being. I haven't seen you as anything else, and now, I don't view the gargoyles as anything but people."

In the darkness and nightly chill, Rachel felt her cheeks burn red. Thankfully, Taurus could not see through the night haze nor did he shine a flashlight on her face if he really wanted to see her expression. There was a satisfied snort from Taurus. Though the shadows and with the help of starlight, Rachel could see his ears flick in thought.

"Taurus," Rachel said, letting her fingers rest his bicep, "shh, slow down for a moment."

The minotaur froze at her touch. Rachel pointed to an oak tree, its branches filled with half grown leaves. She clicked on the spotlight and shined it into the tree, into the largest boughs.

"There, see it?" Rachel said. "A great horned owl."

Nestled in the boughs, was a massive owl. Its eyes were closed in the brightness of the light. In its massive claws, the tail of some prey obtruded. The owl's eyes opened revealing glaring, golden eyes with massive black pupils. The feathers on its head lay back peevishly. Silently it took to the air, soaring over Taurus and Rachel, still clutching its prey. The owl vanished into the darkness. Taurus kept his flashlight focused into the darkness.

"Come," Rachel said. "There's a lot more to see."

Taurus followed Rachel down the pathway. The forest smelt so differently than New Olympus. There was an earthy tinge to the aroma, the aroma of decaying leaves and tree bark, and a clean, clear moisture smell as well. The air around New Olympus had a metallic smell mingled in the smell of fish, seaweed, and salt. New York City smelt like greasy smoke and rotting trash. Taurus never apprehended how the smell of dirt could be so…cleansing.

Through their walk, Rachel pointed out different species of trees and the variety of animals they came into contact with. A few Taurus knew, such as rabbits and foxes. Others like possums and raccoons he had never heard of. They squatted down in ferns to watch a mother raccoon and her three babies search for crayfish in a nearby stream. The raccoons scattered when Rachel suddenly jolted upwards and screeched. She clawed at her hoody and yanked something out of it. She screamed even louder when she finally got a good look at it and dropped it, a massive wolf spider.

Her arms wrapped tightly around Taurus's arm, so tightly that the minotaur had to wince. Rachel kicked and screamed, and seemed prepared to climb up on Taurus's back.

"KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT!" she screeched frantically, still holding onto Taurus's arm with both her legs off of the ground, when the spider refused to rush into undergrowth.

"I thought you loved animals," Taurus stated.

"Spiders aren't animals!" Rachel said, on the verge of a breakdown. "Just kill the damn thing! Taurus! Don't put me down! DDDDDDDDDDDDOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNN'TTTTTTTT!"

Taurus shook Rachel off. He kneeled down and picked the spider up; it was about the size of Rachel's palm. The spider struggled in Taurus's grasp.

"It's just a spider, Rachel," Taurus said. "There's nothing…Rachel? Rachel?"

Rachel was gone.

&&&

Taurus let the spider go in the undergrowth. Rachel was no where to be seen. He could hear her sneakers crushing twigs as she ran up the trail at full speed.

"KEEP THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!" she gasped in the distance.

This seemed like the type of situation where he should allow Rachel calm down before approaching her. Maybe it really wasn't…but Taurus was benefiting from being alone in the forest. There were so many things Rachel overlooked as they walked through the forest, so many things he overlooked. It was rewarding just sitting out here on a stump and reflecting. Without Rachel to sidetrack him, Taurus could be left to his own devices.

There was no metallic buzzing or the honking of horns out here, only the droning of insects and the calls of night birds, completely nonexistent in New Olympus. Taurus did not feel small in the forest, he felt like he was part of it.

Taurus took out the granola bar and ate half of it. Thoughtfully, he chewed on his mouthful. His eyes closed in consideration.

There were footsteps in the dried pine needles, right in front of him. Rachel ran up the trail behind him. Taurus opened his eyes.

"Maaaaa," came from the mouth of a small, long legged creature before him. "Meeeeeehhhhh."

"A hind?" Taurus stated, recalling the legends.

The little hind scarcely came to Taurus's knees. It was small, wobbly and still wet. An umbilical cord still hung from its belly. Its legs were long, seemingly too long for its body. The knees were knobby and bent, shaking violently with each tentative step it took. The tawny back was dotted in white spots. Like its legs, its ears seemed implausibly huge, and its dark eyes were bulbous, surrounded by lengthy eyelashes.

"Meeehhh," the little hind baaed. "Meeeehhh."

There was a snort from the forest. A larger hind, a hart, darted from the darkness onto the clearing. She paused, halfway out onto the trail. Frozen, she inspected Taurus. Her legs shook anxiously. She snorted again.

"Meh," she stated and slowly approached Taurus and her newly born fawn. Her head was lowered to the ground. "Meh."

She sniffed the ground at Taurus's feet, then sniffed Taurus's hooves, then sniffed his knees, slowly working her way up to his hand. Taurus, like the hart previously, stiffened. In his state, the hart was able to snatch the remains of the granola out of his fingers. The "mugging" happened so quickly, Taurus jumped. The hart seemed unimpressed.

As the hart gnawed on the chew, thick granola bar, Taurus petted her with one large finger. The hart's head jerked back, quickly she returned to the few crumbs of the granola bar left in the wrapper. Taurus petted between the ears again. This time the hart brought her head up, but did not jerk away. She sniffed Taurus's fingers, and licked the tips, removing any flavor of granola. She allowed Taurus to pat the top of her muzzle.

"Meeehh," the little fawn said at her side.

Reassuring the fawn, the hart licked at its shoulders and neck. The fawn began to suckle. Taurus watched in amazement as the hart tenderly attended to her brood.

A whistle broke the silence. "TAURUS?"

The hart twitched, jarring the fawn.

"Taurus!"

Rachel came around the bend in the trail. The hart froze, staring at Rachel who paused as well. Her legs stiffened in preparation for a run. Rachel moved slightly. In a flash of fur, the hart bounded through the forest. The fawn shook confusedly in its spot and with a final "meeeh", it clumsily bounded after its mother.

"AAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEE," Rachel cooed, tears brimming in her eyes. "A baby deer and its mommy!"

Taurus glared at her from his seat. He kneeled down and picked up the granola wrapper and placed it in his satchel. Taurus stood by Rachel, thoughtfully gazing in the darkness. He could still hear the deer family sprinting though the underbrush. His head turned, he smiled and said, "A wonder of nature."

"Did you get to pet it?" Rachel said in an outburst contradictory to her earlier flare-up.

"Yes," Taurus answered.

"Oh my gosh, that was so cute!" Rachel said. "It was just like Bambi!"

Taurus's ears flicked. Cute wasn't the word he would use to describe the situation. In his mind, there was not a word that could describe the situation. The description of Rachel's reaction to the scene could only be described as unsettlingly overreactive.

"Indeed, it was quite an experience," Taurus answered.

"So, does this outdo the Central Park incident or what?" Rachel said. Taurus looked at her, his ears laid back against his skull.

"I'm glad you brought me here," Taurus stated. "It was an experience in deed, to see such things like this, to feel things like this. It was breathtaking."

Rachel smiled. Once again, she was thankful for the darkness hiding her blush. "I'm glad you liked it so much, and to think, I wanted to make tonight a movie night. Sometimes you just forget how incredible, beautifully unexpected nature is until you have someone with you, then you just realize how wonderful this world really is and how—"

**BAM!**

"Oh my god!" Rachel exclaimed, covering her mouth. Her knees nearly gave out. Taurus wore an expression of shock. "That was a gun!"

There was a frightened bleat in the distance.

"Oh my god," Rachel realized.

"What? What?" Taurus said. "You don't think…"

"Taurus, someone, a poacher, shot the deer…Taurus?" Rachel said fretfully. "Taurus? Taurus get back here!"

She caught sight of his booted foot disappeared into the shadows. "Taurus!"

She raced into the darkness and ran smack into Taurus's backside. She hit with such impact, she fell backwards.

"Ohhh," she exclaimed. "Taurus! Don't do that! Don't hmmph mhmmpp upmmph."

Taurus's hand covered her mouth. "Shh…"

He removed his hand from her mouth. He tapped his lips. "Shh."

"Taurus," Rachel said hoarsely, mostly from her collision, "what are you going to do? You can't just scare these people away. They've got guns, you could get shot."

"I'll think of something," Taurus stated, creeping through the forest. "I've go to do something."

Terrified, embracing herself, Rachel followed behind Taurus, just on his heels. "Taurus, you shouldn't do this, please don't."

"Rachel, they shot the deer, the deer I just petted, the deer with a baby," Taurus said.

"The deer's dead, Taurus," Rachel said, tears welling up. "You can't do anything to save it."

"Aren't you a vet?" Taurus said, pointing to Rachel. "You love animals, right?"

"Of course I love animals, but this is a dangerous situation, Taurus? Taurus?" Rachel spoke up. The minotaur squatted in the underbrush.

"There," he stated.

On a dirt road passing through the National Park, laid the body of the hart, lit up the headlights of a pickup truck. Two men with shotguns, slung over their shoulders, examined the body. Taurus could not see the fawn.

"Damn, it's not a buck," the man said, holding up the deer's head by its ear.

"Then why the hell did you shoot it?" the other man, a bit older, exclaimed.

"It's a deer, isn't it?" the man said. "Come on; let's throw this thing in the truck. There's a shit load of deer in the park. Bastards are everywhere."

The young man picked the deer up by its front, and the older man, hefted it by its hindquarters. They carried the deer carcass to the truck of the bed when a light cut through the darkness.

"FREEZE; POLICE! THIS IS A STING!"

"What the hell!" the young man exclaimed, dropping the front the deer.

"Jesus!"

"YOU'RE UNDER ARREST FOR TRESPASSING IN A GOVERNMENT PROPERT, POACHING, AND ILLEGAL USAGE OF FIREARMS IN A GOVERNMENT AREA. PUT DOWN THE WEAP—."

"Shit, police, get the hell out of here!" the young man exclaimed, jumping into the passenger side of the pickup truck. "Get in the truck!"

The older man threw himself into the bed of the truck while the younger man crawled over the driver's side. With the passenger door still open, he sped down the road, the truck crunching and shaking on the rocky road.

"Taurus, that was incredible!" Rachel exclaimed, setting down the spotlight. Taurus removed his hand from his mouth, which he used to muffle his voice slightly.

"Thank you, that CSI is quite handy," Taurus said, stepping up onto the road.

"You learned that from CSI?" Rachel asked.

"Yes," the minotaur answered approached the deer.

"Poor thing," Rachel said. "Where's the baby?"

"Meeeeeh," the fawn bleated from the woods. Nervously it clamored onto the road. Its nose twitched in the direction of its mother. "Meeh."

Rachel took her jacket off and rubbed it on the dead deer. She approached the fawn, the jacket open. "Here little guy. Come here."

She threw the jacket over the fawn and picked it up. It struggled briefly, bleated a few times, but the smell of its mother, heavy on Rachel's jacket calmed it. As Rachel tended to the fawn, Taurus moved the dead hart off of the road. In New Olympus, the bodies of the decease were cremated, and the ashes given to family. Sometimes the ashes were sprinkled in areas significant to the family, sometimes the ashes were kept in vaults. Taurus's father's ashes were mixed in the jar with the ashes of his mother. Taurus kept the jar on his shelf by a book of his mother's dried flowers and his father's badges. It was not safe, for the forest or Taurus, to cremate the hart. Instead, he covered the hart's body with branches.

"There you go, little guy," Rachel said, snuggling the baby close. She covered up its face.

"What are we going to do with that thing?" Taurus asked.

"I believe there is an animal sanctuary nearby," Rachel said, hefting the little deer up. "I've passed it a couple of times when I go home."

"A sanctuary?" Taurus asked.

"A safe place for animals to live," Rachel answered. "The national parks were set aside so that the animals have a place to live, but unfortunately, they're not always safe."

"Why do people do that? Just kill an animal like that?" Taurus exclaimed as they returned to hovercraft. "Why?"

"Because people can be disgusting Taurus," Rachel answered.

"On New Olympus we would never do a thing—"

"But this isn't New Olympus, Taurus. We have completely different culture than your people. Unfortunately, what those people were doing was wrong, and a lot of people are against what they are doing. But we do hunt—we eat deer, but we have special times to hunt the animals. But there are idiots out there like that, who think they can hunt and kill whenever, whatever they want. People like that, get arrested," Rachel said. "Most people don't stand or do what they were doing. In fact, a lot of people don't hunt."

"But they just shot it, like that," Taurus said. "How can you humans do that?"

"Taurus, you're a police officer, right?" Rachel said.

"Yes."

"Then you have seen the good and bad in people. You should know what people are capable of—you of all people," Rachel said. "And since you are a police officer, you should know people slip through the cracks sometimes. Your island isn't perfect. You were telling me that there is no poverty on your island. Are you sure? Taurus, there has to be the have and the have-nots."

"Everyone is taken care of on the island. We have a welfare system to watch those who are in need. In deed there is poverty, but not on the scale such as this," Taurus stated.

"Sometimes, Taurus, people slip through the cracks," Rachel said, cradling the fawn. "There's always an exception, right? What do you exactly do for your job?"

"I run the security headquarters. I'm chief, I'm in charge of the officers and the criminals, as well as the safety of the entire city," Taurus answered.

"In other words, you're in the building most of the time," Rachel said.

"Yes," Taurus answered.

"Then you don't get to go many crime scenes," Rachel said.

"I go to those that are of utmost importance, in the upper districts. Most crimes occur in the 'poorer' districts, and are petty, simple crimes. Most crimes are left to other officials. They deal with the petty crimes, arrests, and clean up," Taurus said. "But I deal with all the criminals and their detainments as well as punishments."

"But you're not at the scene, and then you really don't know what poverty is like for your people," Rachel said. "You simply deal with the criminals. You don't know what exactly went on; you haven't seen where it occurred or exactly why it occurred. You can't say stuff like that without actually knowing Taurus!"

Taurus snorted. He dwelled, and once again, Rachel nearly walked into him. It was silent as they returned to the hovercraft. Instead of vigilantly stepping through the forest as he did earlier, Taurus trudged, pushing aside branches and tearing through the brush like a tiger angrily stalking some trespasser.

"Where's this sanctuary?" Taurus gruffly asked when they reached the clearing.

"It's up the road, north," Rachel answered, her voice hushed. Her face was curled in towards the baby deer. "I'm not sure how…far…maybe ten miles, twenty miles."

"Okay," Taurus said. "How's the fawn doing?"

"Huh?" Rachel was caught off guard. "He's okay, a little shaken. I don't he realizes his mother has just been shot."

"Come on, we better get going," Taurus said. He stood by the hovercraft, allowing Rachel to board it first. Taurus threw one leg over the seat and brought his weight up onto the seat.

"Meeeh," the fawn bleated as the hovercraft shook.

"Shh, shh," Rachel cooed. "We better get moving before he starts jumping around."

Taurus started the engine. The fawn struggled, kicking its nimble legs wildly. It continually bleated. Rachel feared she would squeeze the fawn to death try to keep it from falling to its death. About two miles out of the park, the fawn freed its front half from the jacket cocoon. Both Rachel and the fawn just about toppled from the hovercraft. Rachel grabbed hold of the fawn as it made a leap of fate, and Taurus grabbed hold of Rachel, who slid off of the seat as she stretched to the side to catch the fawn. The wind was knocked out of Rachel at the pressure Taurus applied to her stomach as he yanked her back onto the seat. Her heart was in her throat when she realized how close she came to plummeting to her death.

After that, the fawn was well behaved.

"Taurus, look, fences!" Rachel exclaimed. "This must be it!"

A herd of twenty or thirty deer scattered over the sound of the engine. There was a large building, several areas of land fenced in by chain linked fence. There were several sheds, a few barns, and smaller, fenced in areas.

Taurus landed in the largest enclosure. Both Rachel and the fawn were eager to touch mother earth. Rachel set the fawn on the ground, its wobbly legs even wobblier after the ride. She pulled her jacket off of it.

"There you go little guy," Rachel said, giving the fawn a push.

"Meeeh," the fawn bleated, high stepping though the grass. "Meeh!"

In the lights of the hovercraft, the eyes of several deer glowed as they surveyed the scene. They however, did not approach Rachel or Taurus.

"Sanctuary," Taurus stated. "Why do you have sanctuaries for animals?"

"Because there are a lot of people in this world who love animals," Rachel said. "Some so much that they set up places to help orphans, or wounded animals, or unwanted animals. People know, if they let all the animals suffer, there won't be anymore deer or owls or raccoons in the world. These are the people who want to save animals, not shoot them."

"Humans seriously do this? Donate their time and effort into helping animals?" Taurus asked.

"Yes," Rachel said. "And preserving the land for the animals."

"Huh," Taurus said, scratching his chin. "We'd better go before we're spotted."

The fawn disappeared into the darkness. Rachel nodded and got onto the hovercraft. Taurus, on the other hand, still stood by it, staring off into the distance.

"Taurus," Rachel said.

The minotaur shook his head. "Oh, sorry."

She smiled. Taurus mounted the hovercraft, but still looked over his shoulder.

"Do you think he'll be all right?" Taurus asked as they flew away. "A night without its mother, isn't that a little too dangerous? Wouldn't it starve?"

"It will be fine, it will be very hungry in the morning," Rachel said, "but their mothers leave them alone for many hours. It's even possible that one of the mother deer would adopt it."

For over two hours it was quiet. Taurus was in an aura of silence again. Rachel could sense he didn't want to talk, but he felt oddly warm, a toasty warm, and Rachel, who was leaning on the minotaur, was enjoying it in the windy, cold air. The little fawn had piddled in her jacket, and she would much rather be chilly then smell like deer pee. They were just entering the suburbs of New York when Rachel tiredly spoke up.

"So, what did you think?" Rachel asked.

"Life is never dull in this land," Taurus said.

"Did you enjoy it?"

"Indeed."

"Good."

Taurus landed his hovercraft on the roof and silently they went into Rachel's apartment.

"What a night!" Rachel spoke up as she set the damp jacket on a chair. "What a night. Do you want something to eat?"

"A cup of tea would nice, thank you," Taurus said heading immediately for the couch. The minotaur sat down and stretched out.

Rachel threw a mug of water into the microwave and clomped over to her computer and the bookshelves. She clomped back to the table, her arms full of books. She began to place objects into Taurus's satchel.

"I've got some great books for you to read, Taurus," Rachel said. "And a spare box of pancake mix. And some popcorn you just heat up on the stove. Or you can pour it into a pan and heat it up, don't lift the lid till it's done popping. I've got a few other gifts for you too."

"Thank you," Taurus said.

The microwave beeped. Rachel returned with a mug of tea. She handed Taurus the mug and sat down on the other side of the couch.

"Thank you, Rachel," Taurus said. "I gratefully appreciate your generosity. Tonight itself is now a high point of my life, never have I experience such, and I am thankful for you giving me such an experience. Unfortunately, I will be leaving soon; I have business to attend to—Rachel?"

The young human was slumped in her seat, asleep. Taurus waved a hand over her face—nothing. Over the past two nights she must have gotten around three or four hours of sleep; she was exhausted. Taurus could easily go four nights without sleep, and on several occasions he had.

"Thank you, Rachel," Taurus said, hefting his satchel.

Taurus climbed up the ladder, leaving the human to dream on the couch.

&&&

Taurus, tired, came home to find his apartment door open slightly. The glow of the screen illuminated his entire apartment. The nymph, Calypso was sitting on his couch, a bowl of roasted pine nuts in her lap.

"Hi Taurus!" she said in her sing-song voice. "How was the human lands?"

"Exhausting," Taurus answered, throwing his satchel down on his coffee table. "If you don't mind, I need to use my restroom and clean up a little."

He scratched the back of his head and proceeded to the bathroom. The door closed.

"Oh," Calypso said, popping a few pine nuts in her mouth. "OOOOOOOO!"

The pine nuts were quickly forgotten at the sight of Taurus's abandoned satchel. Calypso pulled out six books, all hardbacks, extremely worn, and very thick. The books were quickly pushed aside. There was another box of that cake mix. That too was disregarded. The bottom of the satchel was filled with a variety of small objects. Calypso upturned the satchel on the table.

Odd bars covered in colorful plastic coating covered half the table. There were two bags marked "popcorn", but when Calypso shook them, there was a rattle, not fluffy kernels. There was another, smaller book with a wide eyed cartoon deer standing before a patch of flowers. "Disney's Bambi" was written in bold letters up top. Taurus seemed to be taking his time in the bathroom. Calypso picked up one of the bars, marked Snickers in red and blue, and unwrapped it and tasted it, just biting off the tip.

"Mmmm," she said. It was richer and heavier in taste and consistency than New Olympian foods. However, there was something great about crunchy nuts, some kind of thick nougat fluff, smooth, melting sweet icing, and golden chewy syrup. "I could get used to these!"

When Taurus finally came out from the bathroom, his face soaked, but eyes still groggy, Calypso was lounging across the couch, the television on, but forgotten. In one hand was the half-eaten Snickers bar. Her face was hidden behind the Bambi book.

"Rachel's packed you some great stuff," Calypso said, gesturing with the candy bar.

Taurus lowered his frame into his chair. Loudly, he yawned. He picked up a book, it happened to be one of Rachel's college books, a book that the bookstore would not buy back. American History was written across the front.

"Indeed she has," Taurus said, flipping through the pages.

Calypso popped the last bite of Snickers into her mouth. She sniffed the air. "Why does it smell like cinnamon in here?"


	6. World Collision

**World Collision**

Rachel never felt so uncomfortable and out of place. She stood at the bar, actually a few feet away from the bar and a few feet away from the mosh pit ballroom, stuck in an intermission between two destructive decisions. She could go get a drink, she was after all, old enough, and a college student, and it was thirsty Thursday. Alcohol was not Rachel's thing. She did not know or want the end results. She could go to the mosh pit and dance in the group. She loved dancing, but her heart was not with her tonight. She was not in the mood. She was in dancing classes since she was seven, but staring out at the dance floor, a mass of limbs and flashing lights, she could only feel out of place. There was some dance going on she didn't know. She doubted there was not even dance moves: that everyone was making their moves up as they moved along in their tiny space.

Pulling a stool up, Rachel ordered a papaya smoothie. She turned the stool to face the dance floor and leaned back on the bar. She looked for her friends, Deanna and Meredith. Both of them called her earlier that evening in hopes of dragging out her apartment and taking her to the theatre to see some movie, any movie. The lines were long, and after waiting in line for two hours, they left. Deanna called her boyfriend, Frances, AKA Frankie Deeboy, a Dee-jay, to hook them up at a local nightclub. They got in with no wait, and no charge, which may have been the only good thing about that night. Deanna hung on Frankie all night, slow dancing and necking off to the side against the brightly painted walls. Meredith, who currently did not have a boyfriend and never had a steady relationship, was out in the center of the dance floor flipping between dance moves and dance partners.

Everyone was having so much fun, or at least looked like it. Rachel wished she was not so self conscious. Here she was sitting at the bar in a pair of cowboy boots, a sweet sixteen birthday gift from her grandfather and late grandmother, in a fake blue snake skin skirt, a green spaghetti strap, and blue jean jacket. She felt clunky, and like a lonely country girl, of course she was a country girl, but she felt more like the classic, corny country girls seen in movies, a stereotype.

"Hey, you new here?" someone asked from the side. Rachel startled, nearly dropping her drink, but she knocked her pink denim purse off of her lap.

"Ah, no," Rachel answered sheepishly as a lanky, blond frosted boy, about her age, set her purse back on her lap. "Thank you. I've been here three years."

"How come I've never seen you before," the young man said, pulling up a stool for himself.

"New York is a big city," Rachel answered shyly, a looked away. The man did not abscond.

"My name's Brad," he said. "What is your name?"

"Rachel," she answered, looking back up.

"Rachel, my sister and mother's names are Rachel," Brad answered.

"Really," Rachel said, "there are no Brads in my family."

Brad smiled. "What are you doing in New York Rachel?"

"I'm a college student," Rachel answered, her face blushing. "I came here to go to school."

"Me too, I'm going to be a lawyer, you?" he asked with a suave, easy smile.

Rachel turned to face him, pressing her back against the bar. "A vet tech, hopefully, lately I've been having a hard time making the grades."

"Are you going to work for the humane society? I heard they're looking for vet techs. My uncle transferred over to there, they need all the help they can get," Brad said.

Rachel blushed. "I've never thought of doing that, but I'm specializing in animal therapy, mostly in large animals like horses and zoo animals. I'm hoping to get an internship, but everything has been coming up null. I'm trying at this one last place."

"Oh," Brad said. "Well, I'm pretty sure something somewhere will show up. Life likes to toss things at you at the right time or when you need it most. If life gave you everything you wanted when you wanted it, you'll never appreciate it."

"True," Rachel said, smiling as she tried to drink her smoothie. "Remember also, when opportunity arrives, grab it."

"Right," Brad said, beaming. "Speaking of opportunity, I believe this is my favorite song. Care to dance?"

"Dance?" Rachel gulped.

"Didn't you just say, when an opportunity arrives, take it immediately?" Brad said, holding his hand out. He smiled, the bright disco lights made his perfect teeth glint.

Rachel held her hand up and Brad reached for it, pulling off of her seat with ease.

In the gap between the bar and dance floor, Rachel does no recall passing through it. She does not attain where she is until she is out in the center of the dance floor. Brad has one arm around her waist and the other hand is clasped around hers.

"Shall we begin?" he asked his eyes dazzling.

Rachel giggled

"I take that as a yes," Brad said and with that, drew Rachel into the first dance move.

"Oh my gosh," Rachel said as she was spun around. Her hair blinded her.

Rachel's heel slid on the laminated flooring. Her breath was taken away as Brad clutched her and held her up with ease.

"A little eager now, aren't we?" he said, pulling her up.

Rachel's face turned red, and it did not help that the red light from one of the many disco lights focused on her face. "No, no, no. I slipped honest, I slipped!"

Brad laughed, the yellow disco light glinting on his teeth momentarily then switching to green. He pulled her up and twirled her around. The red light then focused on his blue eyes before turning away to blind or embarrass someone else.

"You're light on your feet. Were you a dancer?" Brad asked half way into the next song.

"Yes," Rachel answered as their bodies pulled together, "ballerina dancer for six years. I quit in seventh grade."

"Why did you quit? You have quite a dancer now. I can only imagine what this dance floor would look like if you had a few more years experience. You'll leave me breathless, and you're giving quite a run for my money now," Brad said.

Rachel looked away for a moment at all the other desperate gyrating shoes. She returned her eyes to Brad; his head alit in a strobe light. She answered shyly, "I just quit."

"Oh, what a shame then," Brad answered. He paused, reading Rachel's expression. "Shall we continue?"

"Yes," Rachel answered and once again Rachel was swept off her feet and into the energy of the crowd.

&&&

"I have to tell you Rachel, you are quite a dancer," Brad said as they, on their sore ankles, stumbled out into the alley behind the dance club.

"You've already told me that like a hundred times," Rachel exclaimed skipping ahead despite the obvious fact cowboy boots were not made for dancing. Rachel feared taking her boots off when she returned back to her apartment, even more than the pack of yipping Pomeranians that awaited her, left in her care for an extended weekend while Mrs. Brigleston and a half dozen of her equally-senile bridge partners went on some cheap colonial tour of Baltimore bestowed upon her by one of the many societies she was a member off. Mrs. Brigleston was not one for leaving her house, or her beloved dogs and that equally beloved (and just as equally lurid) bird, Coco. But the promise of crab cakes and colonial quilts, and possibility of driving other young people insane somewhere else, drew the elderly woman from her household.

Rachel leaned again the gritty brick wall of the building, fixing the heel of her boot. Brad snuck up behind her. Rachel could feel his heat against her face A chill ran up her neck, freezing even more so as she felt the intense breath from his mouth.

"So, do you want to come back to my apartment?" Brad asked cheerfully.

"Um, no thanks; I've got to get home, dogs to feed," Rachel answered.

"You sure? I mean, I've got this sweet new stereo and entertainment system…you see I have this friend who does some work for Sony, and they give him test samples. I could get you one if you like, just come on over to my apartment and check it out," Brad said.

"Thanks, but no thanks," Rachel answered, moving down the alleyway to the lit sidewalk and street. She could see a few cars, chief among them a red convertible with a white roof. Rachel waved goodbye. "I'm quite happy with the one I have now. I had a great night Brad, thanks. I haven't dance like that in a lon—hey!"

Brad grabbed hold of her wrist. "Aw, come on. I know you want to come."

"Brad, really, I have to get home," Rachel said, trying to pull away.

He grabbed hold her shoulder and yanked her towards him. He pressed his lips against hers, applying more pressure with every millisecond, with his lips and fingertips. The hands that so lightly maneuvered her on the floor, dug into her shoulders, trying to pull her jacket down past her shoulders.

"You're coming back with me!" he gritted through his teeth, nearly crushing her lips in his sneer. "Trust me, you don't want to know what will happen if you don't. YOU"RE COMING WTH ME!"

"No I'm not!" Rachel exclaimed back.

Rachel brought the heel of her cowboy down onto Brad's foot. Instantaneously Brad let go of her as the heavy, wooden heel crushed the top of his shoe, breaking though the material and smashing the vessels and the bones of his foot. Brad was barely one footstep away from Rachel when she brought the pointed tip of her boot into his stomach. Brad did not quite fall down, and Rachel kicked him again, this time setting her priorities a little lower.

Brad pulled away, doubling over. He still was not down, but tears copiously streamed from his eyes.

"You bit—"

"Bastard!" Rachel exclaimed, cracking him upside the head with her purse. Blood spurted from his nose. "Bastard! Bastard! Bastard!"

Brad fell back against the wall with the force of the blow. Rachel kicked him twice in the stomach. "Bastard!"

Rachel stormed down the alleyway, her heels clicking angrily on the brick streets. She barely made it out onto the sidewalk and under a street lamp when her legs gave out. She collapsed and began to cry, burying her face in her hands.

"Are you okay?" a feminine voice spoke from the street, in front of Rachel.

"Huh?" Rachel said, bringing her head up from between her knees. It was not the voice of one of her friends, and thankfully, it was not Brad's voice. Rachel brushed a strand of tear sodden hair out off her face. "I'm fine—honest."

"I'm Detective Elisa Maza," the woman said. From the pocket of her red jacket she removed a badge before, kneeling down. Her friendly tone took a serious edge, "I heard that scuffle in the alleyway. You sure you weren't hurt in anyway?"

"Oh," Rachel said. "I'm fine, honest. I just need to get out of here and go home. I just had a tough day."

Rachel rose from the sidewalk. "I just need to call a taxi and get home."

"Here," Elisa said, "I can take you home. You'll be safer with me than a taxi. Trust me."

"Oh," Rachel said, looking back at the alley, now empty. She felt her chest heave as what nearly happened earlier darted through her mind.

Elisa took hold of the younger woman, supporting her. She moved Rachel to the red car, and Rachel collapsed in the passenger seat, breathing heavily.

Elisa sat in the driver's side and started up the engine. "Are you going to be okay? He didn't do anything to you? Did he? I am a detective, I can go arrest him, get that scum off the streets."

"That's all right," Rachel panted. "I'm fine, just a little shaken up, but fine."

Elisa pulled out onto the street. "I heard all that noise going on, and it sounded like someone was doing a number on someone. Before I could go in, you came out. You don't have a scratch on you, what did you do to him?"

Rachel rubbed the burning bruises on her arms, not scratches, but still painful reminders. "Kicked him where it counts…repeatedly. I'm not going to get arrested for it, am I?"

"Not unless he files a claim against you," Elisa answered. "And so far, it looks like self defense."

Rachel sighed. What a night…

"So where do you live?" Elisa asked.

Rachel gave Elisa the directions, as best as her adrenaline-rushed brain could give. Rachel sighed. "Thanks, so much. I don't know if I would have been comfortable just taking a taxi. Oh, yeah, and I'm Rachel, Rachel Wesley."

"Rachel Wesley, huh? I've been meaning to talk to you about another alleyway incident from a few weeks back," Elisa said. "A few people from a comic book shop came in saying you accused them that of jumping you in an alleyway. They said you were 'attacked' by some horned man, who stole your books. They said you might help with the case a little. They seemed very interested in getting you involved in the case, whether it is because of the weirdness of the case, or some act of revenge. You remember that killer that was caught last week? Had the wits scared and beaten out of him by a horned man?"

"I saw that on the morning news," Rachel answered softly.

"So what about the attack in the alleyway? What made you go accuse the owners of the comic store of stealing your books?" Elisa asked.

"Every once and while those people would show up dressed up as something weird at the book store I work at; Page Turners. One time they came dressed up Han Solo and Boba Fett and played hide and seek in the isles. Another time, three of them came rushing in dressed up as the people from Monty Python and the Holy Grail and began knocking things over. They just do really weird things, and this just felt like something they would do. I was nearly scared to death, and then my school books are stolen," Rachel answered. "I mean, they were always picking on the cashiers, it's harmless, but it's still creepy."

Elisa listened. "And the attacker in the alleyway, can you describe it for me?"

"He did not attack me. Scared me, though, scared me out my wits. I fainted," Rachel answered.

"He? Did you know the attacker was male?" Elisa asked.

"It was dark, really dark, and I fainted. I could not tell if it was a man or a woman, but the attacker was tall, and big," Rachel said. "And after I fainted, I woke in the store."

"Another other distinguishing characteristics you can remember?" Elisa asked.

"None honestly, I fainted, and that's it," Rachel said. "He was big, and tall, and had horns."

"Are you sure they were horns?" Elisa asked. "I mean, they could have been anything."

"Maybe they weren't," Rachel said, chewing on her lip. "The only thing I can remember clearly is waking up on the floor at work."

"And only your books were stolen? No money from you or the store?" Elisa asked. Rachel shook her head.

"I found my books a few weeks later, behind the dumpster," Rachel answered. "They hadn't looked like they were behind the dumpster for a few weeks. It just looked like someone read them and returned them."

"So in other words, it was just a harmless prank and you overacted?" Elisa asked.

"Overacted? No. Harmless, no. I didn't feel safe when I had a gun only inches from my face. It didn't feel like a harmless prank then," Rachel said.

"A gun?" Elisa asked curiously. "What kind of gun?"

"It was a handgun, I know nothing about guns. It could have been a squirt gun for all I cared," Rachel said. "Or even a laser gun, which is what made me point the finger at the nerds at the comic book shop."

Elisa chewed on her lip, humming thoughtfully. "So you saw nothing?"

"Nothing distinctive," Rachel answered.

"And nothing has happened since then?" Elisa asked. "No more sightings or harassment from this alleyway attacker?

"Nothing, it's been smooth running since then. It wasn't until I saw the news as I dressed for school did I actually come across this guy again," Rachel said. "He sounds like a vigilante, doesn't he? I mean, that horned man? That other guy, the one went to the hospital because he was punched in the stomach, wasn't he a murderer?"

Elisa shook, as if she caught a chill. "Yes, he was."

Elisa's car pulled up onto the empty alleyway between Mrs. Brigleston's house and Mrs. Brigleston's garage/Rachel's apartment.

"This it?" Elisa asked.

"Yes," Rachel answered, "thanks for your help."

"Here," Elisa said, handing Rachel a piece of paper. "Here's my number if you ever need me."

"Thanks," Rachel said, holding the paper up then slipping into her jacket pocket. "Thanks for everything."

"You're welcome, take care now," Elisa said, shutting the door.

Rachel watched Elisa's car pull out the alleyway. She waited patiently until the car was gone before trudging up the steps, her cowboy boots clacking loudly on the metal steps. From the corner of her eyes she thought she saw something bolt, like a black mass, whipping across the roofs. Focusing her eyes in the darkness, Rachel saw nothing, not even the stirring of paper and dead leaves.

"Weird night," Rachel said as she continued her ascension.

&&&

The lights in Rachel's apartment were off. There was a bluish glow from the TV set and a muted voice shouted out "ALLEZ CUISINE!"

Four of Mrs. Brigleston's prized Pomeranians greeted Rachel, madly yipping over the din of Kitchen Stadium. The dogs were originally locked in Rachel's kitchen; kiddy playpen walls kept the dogs isolated from the rest of her apartment, allowing them no free range of the area to leave messes. Coco started up in his cage, squawking and rattling the bars as if he was suffering from a seizure. Rachel moaned and dropped her coat and purse on the table.

Taurus who was sitting out the couch, looked back, adjusting his glasses. He pulled his glasses downward, peering up over the black frames. A TV guide was in one hand and the senile Mr. Wiggles curled up on his lap, oddly content and hushed. "Um….hello Miss Rachel Wesley, I'm sorry to intrude…again."

"It's okay," Rachel softly said, pulling a clip out of hair. She ran her fingers through her hair, shaking it loose from its mousse hold. The dogs aggressively followed on her heels. Rachel clomped past the counter, dropping her keys in the fruit basket. "I had a rough night, Taurus."

Taurus watched silently as she clomped on the wooden floors, pulling her hoops out of her ears. Rachel tossed her earrings into a dish setting on her computer desk. Rachel realized she left her date book, with Meredith and Deanna's cell number, in her purse. Rachel hurriedly clomped back to the table. Digging through her purse, Rachel did not find the illusive date book. She recalled she had to switch purses before she left, opting for a smaller, more fashionable one than the bulky, practical one. Rachel tromped back to her bedroom. Taurus watched her, the dogs, instead of following on her heels, sat down between in the space between the dining room table and her bedroom door, and watched her too.

The date book was not on her bed, with the rest of the articles from her old purse. Rachel thumped around her room before finally finding the book under her bed. Rachel picked up the cordless phone and thumbed in the number to Deanna's phone.

Rachel leaned against her doorframe, sliding down to the floor, waiting for Deanna to pick up, with the muted sounds of Iron Chef and the clicking of doggy paws in the background. She brushed her bangs out of her hair when Deanna answered her cell.

"Hey, Deanna, it's me," Rachel said.

"Rachel? Where the hell are you?" Deanna shouted back. Taurus's ears flicked. "We've been looking all over for you!"

"I'm home."

"Home? Why the hell did you go home girl? Didn't you have that cute guy hanging on you—oh, he came home with you?"

"NO!" Rachel exclaimed

"Rachel what's wrong?"

"It's nothing. I just had a rough night," Rachel said, feeling sick again.

"Girl, what's wrong? He didn't try to cop a move did he?"

"A little," Rachel said.

"Oh, just wait till I get my hands on him! I'll nail his ass to the curb," Deanna exclaimed.

"Don't worry. I'm fine," Rachel said. "I just called to tell you I'm home and I'm okay."

"You sure you're gonna be fine?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I'm just tired. You have a good night and don't worry about me. Next week, let's just go to a movie."

"All right, I'll call and check on you tomorrow."

"All right, thanks Deanna."

"You take it easy."

"You too."

Rachel hit the hang up button on the phone. For a moment, she sat on the floor, staring at her feet, feeling ill in the stomach and head. Rachel set her phone on the computer desk and clomped back to the table, past the sofa, Taurus, and the dogs.

"Rachel," Taurus spoke up as she passed him.

"Hmm?" Rachel murmured looking up.

"You look very…nice," He paused, speaking slowly, nervously, and most likely purposely.

"Thanks Taurus," Rachel said, a glint of a smile forming. She looked at his square framed glasses. "You look, well, you look…are you hungry?"

Taurus blinked as Rachel quickly turned and walked into the kitchen. Noisily, she dug through her cupboards. After the raucous clamoring of the popcorn machine, Rachel with a bowl of popcorn sat down on the couch a foot away from Taurus.

For the most part it was quiet. The dogs hopped up onto the couch and Coco somewhat settled into his cage, breaking out into barely distinguishable, fractured songs

_I don't want her (chirp) You can have her. Shetoofatforme! AWK! Have it your way! Have it your way! Yo yo yo! Shave and a Hair cut! Five bucks! My name is Jonas… _

In kitchen stadium, Rachel watched revulsion and Taurus in interest, as the contenders wrestled with very alive and very combative octopi. One chef picked up a giant daikon radish and repeatedly pulverized the octopus.

"Please don't tell me you beat that octopus with a giant radish," Rachel said, covering her eyes. Rachel stood up, flipping over the two dogs who decided to lie on her. They looked at her with a "How dare you!" look before scampering behind the couch. "Let's watch something else. Do have you movies in homelands?"

"Movies?" Taurus asked, he pondered for a moment, realizing it must have been years since he has seen his last movie. He has never gone to a movie alone before, and maybe the most recent he has gone to see was with a date. Like the date, the movie was soon forgotten. "Yes."

Rachel was kneeling beside her television cabinet pulling out VHS tapes.

_Pretty Woman…no…Godzilla VS King Ghidorah…how did that get in here? Spice World…oh hell no, better give that back Deanna…Child's Play, that's better. _

Rachel could not believe how small of a variety she had in tapes, especially when vendors were standing on every street corner with kiddy pools filled with two dollar cassette tapes.

"Do you like scary movies?" Rachel asked pulling the tape from its worn case.

"I can never say I've seen one Miss Rachel Wesley, to honestly say I like them," Taurus said. "What is it about?"

"A doll possessed by the soul of a serial killer terrorizes a family," Rachel said.

Taurus's ears flicked. "You humans have strange plots."

Rachel smiled and placed the tape into the VCR. She sat back down onto the couch only a few inches away from Taurus.

&&&

"This movie is quite perplexing. I am not sure what is more scarier, a possessed doll stabbing people in the neck with a pair of scissors or victims who would rather run screaming than take a few seconds to merely step on the doll," Taurus said towards the end. "Honestly."

"Either you don't have scary movies where you come from, or you haven't seen a lot," Rachel said laughing.

"Horror movies exist," Taurus said. "Unfortunately, in my line of work I have not had the time to recently view one—or any at all."

"The intelligence level of people in scary movies is far lower than people of normal movies. Talent is also noticeably lower," Rachel said. "That's just how scary movies roll. It's a set standard."

"Hmm," Taurus said, "do you have any others?"

"Do you want to watch Signs?" Rachel asked. "I haven't seen it yet. I borrowed it off my friend, and I haven't returned it yet. I guess this will be a good opportunity to watch it."

"Sounds fine," Taurus said. Rachel placed another tape in the VCR.

Signs did not bestow the same feelings as Child's Play did. After the scene of the alien strolling across the street (both Rachel and Taurus jumped, and Mr. Wiggles was jerked out of his spot and scratching for a hold, slid down Taurus's thighs), Rachel was sitting so close to Taurus she was pressing against him. She never realized it as she pressed against him closer and closer as the tension built up. Taurus randomly shifted and twitched, almost shaking Mr. Wiggles from his bed.

"Taurus, why did you jump, it wasn't even a scary part?" Rachel noticed.

"It was nothing," Taurus said. "Spasm."

"Oh," Rachel said, and returned to her spot against his arm. Her form was not stiff with tension this time, but softer, easily forming against Taurus's arm. She rested her head on Taurus's shoulder. Taurus's ears flicked.

Before returning his attention back to the movie, Taurus swore he heard a sigh of relief escape from Rachel.

&&&

The movie ended, and Taurus expected Rachel to speak up, but it was quiet. He was now aware of the dead weight against his right arm. Rachel was asleep, sound asleep, her fingers gripped his arm, eyes moving in REM. Taurus tapped her temple gently with a finger from his left hand. Rachel winced and rolled over on the couch, her head still remained against his arm.

Gently, Taurus supported Rachel's head with one hand, easily engulfing it. He moved as carefully as possible before setting Rachel's head back on the couch. Rachel's fingers scratched gently at the couch cushions. There was a slight whimper; Taurus waited for her to wake. Rachel did not. Taurus watched her for a moment, curious.

Rachel was an incessant talker, always talking, commenting, and joking, all in good cheer. Tonight she was quiet, subdued. Taurus squatted down, watching her for a moment. He overheard the conversation between her and Deanna. He knew something was amiss the moment she entered the room. He expected to hear something immediately come from her mouth, something expressive—fear, delight, surprise—then immediate prattle. Humans, exclamations, and endless talking were his top peeves. However, somehow, all together, they were almost—Taurus chewed over the word—tolerable.

Rachel's hand slid off the couch. Taurus pushed it back up onto the couch. Her wrist was thinner than even his fingers. She smiled lightly in her sleep.

Taurus lay down on the floor onto his stomach. He nestled his head in his arms and slowly fell asleep.

&&&

Rachel awoke to the muffled sound of her alarm clock beeping in her bedroom. In light sleep, she could not figure out what the beeping was. In her morning dreams it was a bird, an ambulance, a phone, and then finally—HER ALARM!

"Oh no!" Rachel exclaimed, jumping off the couch throwing off a blanket, and nearly landing on Taurus's head. The sound of her feet hitting the floor was enough to wake the minotaur.

Through groggy eyes, Taurus watched Rachel sprint into her bedroom. He overheard Rachel as she realized her clock had been beeping for over twenty minutes, "Shit! I've got to get to class!"

As his eyes cleared up, Taurus could see Rachel racing out of her bedroom, still wearing the skirt she wore last night with a sweatshirt over her spaghetti strap. She had a backpack over one shoulder, her coat and purse in the other.

"Hey Taurus, I've got class. Help yourself to the fridge, help yourself to anything. I promise I'll be back later tonight," Rachel exclaimed from the door. "See you later! Just wait and see what I have planned for tonight!"

She waved goodbye and hurried out the door. Taurus laid on the floor for a few minutes before the Pomeranians, yipping, brought him to his senses.

Mr. Wiggles paused in front of Taurus, so close that the dog's nose nearly touched the tip of his snout.

"She sounds considerably better," he said to Mr. Wiggles.

&&&

"We're not going far today," Rachel said, one hand holding a bag, the other holding five brightly colored leashes, "just to my landlady's house. She's out for the extended weekend, going to Baltimore. She left the house and the dogs in my care. I hope they didn't cause you much trouble last night when you came in. I didn't expect you to show up."

The minotaur scratched his chin. "I apologize for that Miss Rachel Wesley. No, they did not cause _much_ trouble."

"You shouldn't apologize," Rachel said, looking over her shoulder to smile. "Honestly, Taurus. I don't mind at all. You don't have to apologize every time. Once is enough."

"I am…"

Rachel sucked in her breath.

"…thankful that you can be very understanding, Rachel," Taurus said.

"Thanks, Taurus," Rachel responded.

_For being there. _

&&&

"Mrs. Brigleston has hypochondria induced rheumatism arthritis," Rachel explained as she unlocked the door revealing an indoor, heated pool. "She watched some program where expectant mothers used heated pools to help ease the pains of delivery and she felt the same would work on her condition. She just expanded a little. Her husband was involved in stocks all his life, and used his money well. I guess he bought some Microsoft stocks before he passed away, and Mrs. Brigleston has been living the high life ever since."

Rachel let the dogs free, which were more than happy to bolt in a half a dozen different directions.

"Do you know how to swim?" Rachel asked, digging through the bag she brought with her.

"Yes," Taurus answered almost expectedly.

"Here," Rachel said, handing Taurus some brightly colored material. "I think they'll fit. They're the biggest they had."

Taurus looked at Rachel's gift, piqued.

"They're swimming trunks. You swim in them," Rachel said.

Taurus held up the trunks, bright red with yellow hibiscus flowers. His expression said it all.

"Um, thanks…they're quite…colorful," Taurus said, peeking over the shorts. "Out of curiosity, Miss Rachel Wesley, could you have found something, less…conspicuous?"

"I know you, Taurus. I looked, it was that or the bright green ones with pineapples," Rachel said laughing. "At least those ones are the same color of your clothing. There's a room in the back you can change into."

Taurus glanced at swimming trunks and at the door. Wordlessly he walked to the door, hoofed feet clopping on the floor, ever glancing at the trunks with uncertainty.

In the back room, Taurus attempted to change into the trunks. It was strange fitting into the swimming trunks. He found it hard trying to fit his legs into the shorts. It was a struggle before he finally pulled the shorts up. There was much banging around in the room as Taurus pulled the trunks up. He banged one shoulder into the wall, hopped around, jarring his other shoulder. The shorts fit comfortably around his waist, but he felt awkward with the shorts on. They were…confining. Shorts and pants were common in New Olympians, particularly with the more human shaped and smaller denizens. Beings who were more bestial with different shaped or proportioned legs like minotaurs, satyrs, sphinxes, and gargoyles, found it more comfortable to wear kilts or loincloths. Taurus not only felt awkward and confined, but he felt ridiculous as well.

Human fashions were beyond him, and he felt New Olympian fashions were beyond Rachel. She did not seem to realize what New Olympians like to wear or felt comfortable in. Wearing clothes swimming was like putting padding on to go outside when there is a slight chilly breeze. Then again, she was only human.

Taurus admired Rachel's generosity, but he had to draw the line. Taking the shorts off was just as challenging as getting them on. Finally he pulled the shorts off and threw them over his shoulder and walked out to the pool.

&&&

Rachel was spooning canned premium dog into engraved, stoneware dishes when she heard Taurus clopping from the back room. She was wearing a lavender one piece swimsuit with an orange and red towel tossed over one shoulder. She was busy feeding the dogs; in hopes of keeping them from patrolling the pool edge and yapping incessantly or at least delay them from doing so.

"I have no use for your swimming trunks, Rachel," Taurus said. "You are a very giving person, but the shorts were quite uncomfortable."

"Oh," Rachel said as she scraped the last bit of food into Mr. Wiggles's dish. "So you're not going swimming then?"

"What do you mean?" Taurus asked. "You do not need clothing to go swimming. It is like jumping into a washing machine to wash your clothes."

Taurus threw Rachel the swimming trunks as she was standing up. She caught them, and peeked over the hem, her face blending into the shorts in color; just as Taurus strutted pass her. Taurus walked to the deep end of the pool, the dogs yipping at the pool. He squatted down, sticking his hand in the water, and found it to be as warm and welcoming as the ocean around New Olympus. At the deep end of the pool, Taurus dove in, water splashing out of the pool as if a meteor struck it. Rachel was still standing in one place, now soaked from head to toe, silent.

The dogs stood at the edge madly barked; only to be silenced as the initial waves came crashing down on them. Once fluffy dogs fled like limp rats caught in the spotlight. Mr. Wiggles was pulled in as the wave drew back into the pool. He swam in circles confusedly before Taurus picked him up in one hand and waded to shallow end to deposit the dog back on somewhat dry land.

"Rachel, are you not going swimming? It was you idea, Rachel? Rachel? Is something wrong? Your face is flushed, are you sick?"

&&&

Chlorine did an excellent job of overpowering the smell of five wet dogs and one wet minotaur. After a few alterations to Taurus's swimming suit, and some slight red faced convincing, Taurus changed into the trunks—right in front of Rachel.

"For a race so obsessed with fashion and clothing, I should not be surprised you are frightened of bare skin," Taurus critically said from the deep end of the pool. Rachel was still flushed, the redness running down her neck and shoulders. Any time she looked at Taurus, the intensity only increased. Rachel glanced over from the shallow end, her face reddened and she looked away. "I am sorry for being so careless."

"It's okay, it's fine. I shouldn't be so immature over nudity. I mean you are from Greece, and they had all those nude statues," Rachel answered, tapping her fingers together and looking at her feet.

"Crete," Taurus corrected. "Knossos."

"Yeah, Crete," Rachel murmured. _More naked statues. And pottery, pottery with naked people and minotaurs. Damn history. _

"You are very shy Miss Rachel Wesley, not to be rude or infringe," Taurus said. "Aren't you scared that someone would try and take advantage of that?"

Rachel looked up. "I've never really cared."

"I overheard your conversation with your friend last night," Taurus stated. "I did not mean to listen in, but something was wrong. You were upset last night. You did not talk much. He hurt you, didn't he? I see the bruises on your arms."

Rachel looked up, the blush turning white immediately. She covered the fingertip sized and shaped bruises on her biceps. "I'm fine Taurus. The bruises are nothing."

"Nothing? He took advantage of you!" Taurus said.

"And I kicked him in the nuts," Rachel answered. She looked away, her arms across her chest, fingers brushing her arms. She looked away, and dry she added, "Repeatedly."

The expression on Taurus's face was priceless. He waded up to her. "What?"

He soon found Rachel pressed against him. Tears were running down her face, even warmer than the pool water. "You don't know how happy I was to see you last night."

&&&

The dogs and the pool were eerily quiet. Rachel sat in a chair on one side of the room with a beach towel on her shoulders and a pair of shorts on her swimsuit. Taurus sat on the other side a towel around his waist.

"What exactly happened last night Rachel? As a law enforcement official, I should be allowed to know," Taurus said.

Rachel chewed her fingernail. "It is not as bad as you are making sound. He tried to 'convince' me go to his apartment with him. And when I said no, he tried dragging me back and kissed me. That's where the bruises came from."

"And?"

"I think at that point I smashed his foot with the heel of my boot. Then after that I walloped him across the head," Rachel said, chewing on her nail. "I don't remember how many times I kicked him."

The minotaur's expression was confused. "And what happened to him after that?"

"I don't know," Rachel said. "I sat down on the street corner and cried and this detective named Elisa found me and brought me home."

Taurus's eyebrows and ears rose.

"Taurus, is something wrong?" Rachel asked.

"Nothing," Taurus said, "I just didn't expect you to do that."

"I think I broke his nose," Rachel said offhandedly. "I was worried I was going to get arrested, but Elisa said I wouldn't along as he doesn't file a complaint against, and it was all in self defense."

The minotaur was very, very quiet, and Rachel was very, very quiet. The dogs were silent. Tulip, the little rust colored one, whined and scratched at the door that opened into the rest of Mrs. Brigleston's house.

Taurus's ears flicked. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Rachel asked.

"It sounds like clicking, and footsteps," Taurus said.

Rachel crept up to the door and carefully pressed her ear against the door. "Taurus…"

"HIDE!" she hissed through her teeth. Taurus as quietly as possible with hooves on tiles hurried to closet in which he changed in.

Rachel creaked open the door. "Mrs. Brigleston?"

Taurus peaked through the door.

"Mrs. Brigleston," Rachel opened the door a little wider. "It's me Rachel. How was Baltimore? Mrs. Brigleston?"

Rachel stepped into the room. Before flicking on the light, she grabbed hold of a Venus De Milo miniature by the head, one of many statues and trinkets that cluttered every table, shelf, book shelf, cabinet, hubby, nook, and cranny in Mrs. Brigleston's home. Rachel felt sorry for Mrs. Brigleston's relations when she passed away, they were going to inherit every statue, trinket, and doily plus those dogs and Coco!

She flicked the light on, "Mrs. Brigleston? Hello?"

She tiptoed through the room. The room was cluttered with furniture and massive potted plants. It was like walking through a jungle. Silently Rachel padded through the room.

"Mrs. Brigle—EEEE!" Rachel screeched as a dark figure lunged at her from behind a rubber tree plant.

Instinctively she swung upward, the base of the statue catching the man in the jaw and sending his head fling backwards. There was a crash as he hit the plant he hid behind and toppled over a coffee table covered in Hubble figurines. Rachel gasped, holding the statue like a bat.

Rachel could not distinguish any features of the man, he work black shoes, black pants, a black sweatshirt, and a ski mask. As she gathered her wits and breath, Rachel realized that the house was being burglarized.

She dropped the statue and ran towards the door just as another arm came out from behind a China Hutch, clotheshanging her. Her feet came out from under her and her lower half kept moving forward while her upper body was yanked towards her attacker. Rachel's throat was caught in his elbow. A split second later a gun was pressed against her temple.

"Who the hell are you?" the man snarled, jabbing the pistol against her head.

"I'm Rachel Wesley!" Rachel gagged. "I'm the neighbor!"

"Shit," the man swore as he began to drag her away from the pool door. "You know how to open the safes?"

"Safes?" Rachel gagged.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW TO OPEN THE FUCKING SAFES?" the man shouted. Rachel coughed. "FUCKING ANSWER ME! NOW!"

"No!"

The man pressed the muzzle against her temple, tightening his grip! "Are you lying!"

"I'M NOT!" Rachel cried out. "DON'T SHOOT ME!"

The man dragged Rachel through two rooms of Mrs. Brigleston's expansive house, knocking off dew-dads and plants. He pulled her downstairs to the basement. He threw Rachel down on the floor beside an oil painting of one of Mrs. Brigleston's late dogs. The portrait covered up an in the wall safe. The man tore it off.

"Open the goddman safe!" the man swore, aiming the gun at her.

"I don't know the code!" Rachel cried out.

The man shot between her feet, Rachel squealed as the Persian rug smoldered only a few inches from her toes. The man aimed the gun higher. The walky-talky at his hip blipped. He picked it up.

"Yeah?"

"What was that?"

"We have a visitor. Only one, bitch knocked Carter out. I found the safe. Bitch is the neighbor girl. You got the jewelry."

"Only a little bit. The conker has it hidden all over the place."

"Right. This bitch here is gonna open the safe. Right?" the man said, aiming the gun between Rachel's eyes. Rachel held back a cry and nodded. "Good girl."

"What, what the fu—"

A crash echoed over the walky-talky and a thud reverberated through the floor. There was a gunshot. Then a second. Then a thump as if something was thrown against the wall and multiple crashes as pictures and figurines hit the floor.

"Ash! Ash! You there man?" the man exclaimed. "Yo? You there!"

Rachel crouched down and propelled herself into the man's midsection, her shoulder hitting him hard into the stomach and groin.

"You crazy!" he screamed before she knocked his gun from his hand, sending it under a chest of drawers.

She leapt up quickly, hurrying towards the burglar alarm Mrs. Brigleston installed. She punched it, her hand aching. Alarms went off, the house was filled with noise. From the pool, Rachel could here all the dogs barking uncontrollably. The man crawled up.

"You bitch! I'm gonna kill you!" he launched himself towards Rachel.

Rachel grabbed hold of a nearby vase, preparing for impact. A huge gray hand grabbed hold of the back of the man's sweatshirt yanking him backwards. Taurus's other hand hit the man across the head, knocking him out. Rachel breathed a sigh of relief, dropping the vase shattering it.

"Are you okay, Miss Rachel Wesley?" Taurus asked putting a hoof on the back of the comatose man, just in case he came to.

"I'm fine," Rachel panted.

"I did not believe you when you said you broke that man's nose," Taurus said, brushing off his shoulder, "then I saw the man upstairs. I never knew you could be like…that."

Rachel looked away, guilty, and feeling dirty, rubbing her aching hand.

From the shoulder Taurus brushed off, blood glistened and trickled onto his chest.

"You're hurt!" Rachel cried out. Taurus looked at the wound as if it was a bug bite. Tentatively she stepped forward and reached out to Taurus's wounded shoulder.

"The bullet must have grazed me when I took down the man upstairs," Taurus simply stated to his less than stoic companion and stepped backwards.

Outside Rachel heard the cacophony of police cars. She turned to Taurus, her face ever more worried than before. "You've got to get out of here!"

She pushed the minotaur towards to the door. Taurus fell down onto one knee. His snout grew pale. He breathed heavily, sucking air through his nose and mouth. Rachel was beside him barely a second later.

"You're hurt bad Taurus," Rachel said to the grimacing minotaur.

"It is not that bad, Miss Rachel Wesley. Just a shot of pain," Taurus answered, glaring at her from the corner of his eye. His color returned with that remark and glare. With a heave, he stood back up. Rachel had a hold of his arm to support him. . "To the door."

Rachel released his arm. "I'll stay here Taurus and talk the police. Get back to my apartment, okay. I have to keep them distracted so they don't see you."

Taurus looked at the human for a moment.

"Go!" she exclaimed.

Rachel raced up the stairs as Taurus plodded behind her. She ran to the front door as Taurus headed towards the back door and pool.

The police were just coming through the door as Rachel let loose a scream. Two police officers stood in the blackened living room with flash lights pointing into the kitchen.

"THERE'S BURGLARS IN THE HOUSE!" Rachel exclaimed, panting. She pointed into the other rooms of the house. "THEY'RE IN THERE!"

The policemen rushed up to her.

"Who are you?" one asked suspicious.

"I'm the neighbor girl. I came over for a swim," Rachel said panting. "The owner---_pant, pant_—Edna Brigleston—_heave, heave_—left me in charge of her dogs and house. Please do something! He tried to shoot me. He tried to shoot me! I knocked one out and another guy jumped me. He held a gun to my head! He held a gun to my head!"

Rachel began to cry as other police officers swarmed into the house. She fell forward, but would have hit the ground if an officer had not caught her. Officers, guns drawn slowly navigated though the jumbled room into other rooms. Rachel held her hand up to her face as if to gather up her wits, but was merely covering up a slight smile. A cop covered her shoulders with a blanket.

For her safety, Rachel was lead out of the house onto the streets where more police cars were pulling up. An ambulance pulled up as well. Rachel was directed to the ambulance where she sat in the back while paramedics examined her and an officer photographed the bruises and scrapes on her from the struggle.

An officer appeared, dragging the first man, the one Rachel struck with the Venus de Milo statue. The man was dazed, stumbling. He was so stunned; he did not recognize Rachel as the cop dragged him past. The entire side of the man's face was a swollen purple bruise.

"You okay?" an older police woman asked Rachel, blocking her view.

"I'm fine," Rachel answered, breathing heavily, nervous, scared, and cold in her swimsuit.

"I need you to give a witness account of what happened," the woman directed.

"A witness account?" Rachel asked.

"You need to come down to the station," she matronly answered.

"Station?" Rachel gulped.

"Yes, is something wrong?" the woman asked.

A dissonance of mad yipping answered for Rachel. Five dogs bounded out of the pool room, which a police officer had opened in his search for suspects.

"JESUS!" they heard him exclaimed from the other side of the house. They immediately sprinted to Rachel.

"I can't leave the dogs here," Rachel answered quickly, picking up a wheezing Mr. Wiggles. The dog was half nuts, shaking violently and drooling to the point he was foaming at the mouth. The officer looked confused. "Mrs. Brigleston would kill me if she found out something happened to her dogs. Can I give statements here?"

The officer took out a pad and jotted down Rachel's information and her account of what happened. Rachel gave the officer part of the truth, most but not quite, but enough to leave the officer satisfied and the questions so far answered.

A second officer came up to the back of the ambulance. "How many intruders were there?"

"Two I encountered," Rachel answered. "But I heard gunshots up stairs when the one man was dragging me down onto the basement."

The man turned to the female officer. "There appears to have been four intruders. One escaped on foot. I followed a blood trail but it disappeared, have officers canvas the area."

He looked at Rachel. "You're free to go on with your night."

"I don't think I'm going to be doing much tonight," Rachel answered dryly. "I don't think I'll be doing any sleeping either. Do you think it's safe for me to go home tonight?"

"You live in the apartment nearby?" the man asked.

"Yes," Rachel answered.

"We'll have men search it before you go on, okay?" he said.

"Okay," Rachel said nonchalantly. Deep down, she was screaming and terrified. But any expression would give Taurus away and tie her in somehow to the crime.

Five minutes never felt so long as officers returned from their search.

"Nothing," they all said. The older officer turned to Rachel.

"You have a good night miss," he said, tipping his hat. "We'll contact you later when we are prosecuting these scumbags."

The house was closed up and checked over again. It took nearly two hours before the police were finally gone. As the last flashing light disappeared, Rachel sprinted back to her apartment.

"Taurus!" she exclaimed flinging open the door. "Taurus!"

Rachel climbed up the ladder up unto the roof. "Taurus!"

Rachel searched for Taurus's hovercraft, and found it by accidentally bumping into it and breaking off a toenail. "Taurus?"

Rachel chewed on her fingernails, nearly chewing down to her fingertips.

She ran into the alleyway. "Taurus!"

On the ground she saw the glistening of red blood. Barely could she see a few drops, a few drops that the officer missed in the darkness and dankness of the alleyway. Rachel followed the weak trail to behind a dumpster.

"Taurus," Rachel said. "Are you okay?"

No answer. Rachel looked behind the dumpster. There was no Taurus, but it looked as someone large slumped against the wall and slid to the ground. There was a small pool of blood.

_Oh no…_

Rachel fell to her knees, tears welling up. "Where did you go? Taurus?"

It was as if he stood up and flew away. Finally, Rachel rose up from the alleyway, her head hurting. She felt sick to her stomach as she managed to climb up the stairs to her apartment. On the floor underneath the dining room table was a piece of paper. Rachel picked it up; it must have fallen out of her coat pocket.

_If you ever need help…anything..._

It was neatly and clearly written so perfectly as if it was made to be obvious. Rachel picked up the paper and sat down on her couch and waited.

One hour later and nothing from Taurus…

"Hi, Elisa, it's me, Rachel. I don't know if you're going to believe this…"


	7. Lost and Found

**Lost and Found**

_Somewhere in New Olympus…_

_I am hungry. I am hungry. _

_I'm trying to sleep. _

_Where is the gravel faced one?_

_I'm trying to SLEEP._

_I am hungry. The gravel faced one is not here. Feed me. _

_You can wait. _

_Feed me. The gravel faced one left you in charge. _

_You are a PAIN!_

Calypso threw the blanket off of her and stormed down the hallway and unlocked the door to Taurus's apartment.

_You have come. _

"You are a pain!" Calypso exclaimed, looking at the fish in the tank. "It's like,"—looks at a clock on Taurus's book shelf—"seven at night! Wow…I must have really overworked myself at the gym yesterday…and studied…and partied…and watched the screen."

Calypso sprinkled a fat pinch of fish food on the surface of the water and Achelous voraciously attacked the flakes like a shark surrounded by tuna in a feed frenzy. Achelous's thoughts ended as he ate. She leaned against the tank, arms folded over the lid. Achelous contentedly burped a bubble, his thoughts becoming more unambiguous.

_Where is the gravel faced one?_

_Far away. _

_Faraway?_

_Far, far away. _

_What does he do far-far away? _

_Not sure. I guess he likes going there and having fun. He's always returning there, despite the fact he says he hates humans. I wonder what he is doing right now. _

&&&

_In New York City…_

"He must weigh as much as you, Broadway!" Brooklyn grimaced hefting the fallen Taurus by his arms, "in stone form!"

"Stop talking and keep walking," Broadway retorted, but did not argue. Angela, scouting up front, giggled, and she too did not retort on her mate's behalf.

The minotaur was a dead weight. The blood loss was a fair amount, but not deadly. The minotaur had passed out behind a dumpster. Though, Rachel had told Taurus to return to her apartment, Taurus struggled down the alleyway. He was bleeding, and the drops of blood would lead to Rachel's home. If Taurus was discovered in Rachel's home, Rachel would immediately be implicated. Though it would be bad enough if he was discovered, it would be even worse if Rachel was involved. It was too much pressure to put on a girl who had enough pressure on herself. Taurus could only imagine what the human government would do to get her to "speak", or what her life would be like once it publicly announced Rachel was cavorting secretly with a minotaur. Sprinting down the alleyway was too much exertion; the wound went far deeper than Taurus thought. Human weapons were more dangerous than he originally surmised. He had crushed that gun in the park so easily before, he did not expect them to be able to do so much damage. By the time he reached the dumpster, he was lightheaded. By the time he sat down, he fainted. By the time Taurus had fainted from blood loss, the shoulder wound had already clotted and closed. Had he been awake he would have realized how close he came to being discovered. The police officer who was searching the alley became distracted by the commotion caused when another officer opened the pool door, freeing Mrs. Brigleston's Pomeranians. One of the Pomeranian's aided even more so in Taurus's plight by lifting its leg and piddling on the leg of an unsuspecting officer, raising a shout of alarm as if the offended officer was suddenly jumped by a hidden criminal. The gargoyles were swiftly able to swoop down onto the fallen minotaur and not so swiftly carry him off.

Taurus was stiff, and it was a struggle to straighten out his limbs to make him easier to transport. When his limbs were placed in the right position, they locked up, so he was not a limp, floppy weight. Still it was not easy to carry him. It was like trying to move a gargoyle during its stone sleep.

"Where are we going to take him?" Broadway huffed. "He's too heavy to glide with."

"We'll have to take him to the Labyrinth, it's the only place he'll be safe, Goliath said that is where to take him," Brooklyn heaved. A shadow glided overhead as Goliath scouted from the sky. He landed before them.

"How is he fairing?" Goliath said.

"Heavy," Brooklyn answered.

"And out cold," Broadway answered. "He's been shot."

Goliath said to the limp form, "I am sorry friend Taurus. I knew your opinions of humanity were low, and I know this experience will not help you."

Goliath shook his head. "We must get him to the Labyrinth for treatment. Come, hurry."

Into the darkness the gargoyles carried their cargo as a young woman began her search with a call.

_&&&_

_Somewhere in the tunnels of the Labyrinth, _

Rachel walked along the long, eerie tunnels of the Labyrinth, walking the five Pomeranians who were even smaller than the rats that dashed into shadows at her and Elisa's approach. Her mind was a blur, her chest heaved with worry, excitement, and fear, and all she could think of was_ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…_

"So how long have you known Taurus?" Elisa asked, startling Rachel out of her stupor.

"More than a month," Rachel answered. "How did you know? How do you know Taurus, and how did you know he was here? He's never mentioned you."

_He's never mentioned much at all…_

"I'm not surprised," Elisa said. "We bumped into each other almost a year ago during, under some strange circumstances."

"As strange as or stranger than getting frightened by him in an alleyway and having him borrow your books?" Rachel asked.

"Let's just put it this way, what you and I find strange are very different," Elisa explained.

"Taurus said, or at least I inferred, that he was from a technologically advanced society hidden away from humanity because they hated humans for what they have done to them years ago. What happened? Did you accidentally wash up on the island or something?" Rachel asked. Elisa blinked. Rachel sheepishly looked back. "Am I close?"

"Close," Elisa said with a smile.

"So ho did you know that Taurus was here, as in here, New York City, at my apartment?" Rachel asked, playing around with the charm on her necklace. "How did you know I knew him?"

"I have my resources," Elisa answered. She indicated the Labyrinth. "This is a homeless shelter, a way for the homeless to get back on their feet. My brother, Derek, you will know him as Talon, run this. A few weeks ago a homeless man questioned Derek about a 'new guy with horns", which left Derek very confused and he asked me about it. You see, the Labyrinth is not just for humans down on their luck, it is for all walks of life that need a place where they belong. He thought the Labyrinth had a new occupant, and after he described the 'guy with a horns', it could only be one person I know and have seen recently."

"Taurus," Rachel stated.

"Taurus was in New York over a month ago, with in the same time of your attack. I was not aware of your attack, since you did not report it," Elisa said.

"It was a little bizarre," Rachel admitted. "Do you think anyone would have believed me?"

Elisa smiled in support. "I was leaving after my shift when I saw two guys dressed up…weird like an elf and a Viking talking about the recent attack involving that murderer to another officer. I would have walked passed, but well…you cannot walk pass two people dressed up with fake weaponry wrapped with duct tape. I listened in, and the next night brought up the report, and my brother had something interesting to say to me. Your name happened to be mentioned on the report, and a young woman roughly matching your description was reportedly dragged away by the man with horns."

Rachel's face blushed.

Elisa offered another smile. She tapped her ear. "I thought you had nothing to do with Taurus until you mentioned the mugger was punched in the stomach."

Rachel sucked in her breath.

"Which would only be known if you were actually right there," Elisa said, holding up a finger. Rachel's face burned red. "Which makes me curious why it appears Taurus keeps coming back to New York City."

"He borrows my books," Rachel answered shyly. "And watches CSI on my TV."

Elisa smiled.

"So what do you know about Taurus," Rachel spoke up. "He never tells me much. What has he told you?"

Elisa looked at the woman, silent for a moment. The Pomeranians yapped uncontrollably as something moved farther down into the path. A deep bark, deeper than the bark of one of the rottweilers that guarded the garbage dump farther down the alleyway, answered the Pomeranians' call. The Pomeranians stopped with high pitched whines, ears laid back, and then raucously, and eagerly, began to answer, pulling twice as enthusiastically at their leads.

A confused whine came from ahead of Elisa and Rachel as a beast, its finned ears rose in confusion, paused as it pawed towards them. It stepped back as the Pomeranians lurched forwards.

"This is Bronx," Elisa introduced with a laugh.

"He's a gargoyle," Rachel said chewing on her thumbnail, "like the ones from TV. I saw those debates about them in class."

Bronx cautiously approached, the Pomeranians gleefully pounced around him, the gargoyle beast whimpered in terror and tried to avoid crushing the small dogs as they darted around his massive feet.

"See he's more scared of your dogs," Elisa stated as Rachel kneeled down. Rachel did not need any more encouragement.

"He's so cute," Rachel exclaimed, scratching under Bronx's chin, and then scratching at the top of his head. She pulled his head up and looked into the intelligent eyes. "He's just like a dog, but, in a way, he's not."

Bronx licked her face. Elisa leaned down, "See, he likes you."

"Tell him I like him too," Rachel said scratching behind his finned ears before standing up. "Do you know how Taurus is doing? He's not hurt bad, is he?"

"I checked in on him, he's fine. Just a little dizzy from blood loss," Elisa said.

A shadow behind Elisa moved. Eyes looked fiercely from the darkness. The Pomeranians' ears laid back and they growled. Bronx looked at them puzzled.

"Elisa…." Rachel croaked at the set of eyes. "There's something behind you."

Elisa turned and smiled. "Goliath."

A gargoyle strode out of the shadows. His wings were clasped around him, resembling the cape that Dracula's, and deathly serious expression that put Taurus's even to shame.

"Is this the person that wishes to see Taurus?" Goliath asked. He spoke purposefully and concisely. Rachel nodded nervously.

"Yes," Elisa said. "This is Rachel Wesley."

"In deed," Goliath stated and turned. "I saw you earlier tonight Miss Wesley. Can you tell me what has happened to Taurus?"

"There were burglars in my land lady's house. One of them had a gun, and in the struggle, Taurus was shot," Rachel explained, chewing on her thumb.

Goliath glanced over to Elisa uneasily. The word gun sent chills down his spine, and involuntarily his eyes flashed white, like magnesium in a flame. But just as quickly as magnesium, his eyes burned out. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Rachel flinch.

"You'll have to excuse my behavior Rachel. I have bad experience with…guns," Goliath said, coughing the word up from the back of his throat. He cast a sympathetic eye over to Elisa. Rachel looked away when Goliath turned his face down the tunnel way. He spoke to Elisa. "Are Talon and Maggie here?"

"No, they are making their rounds," Elisa said. "Claw is guarding the door tonight."

"Are they gargoyles too?" Rachel spoke up.

Both Elisa and Goliath looked off to the side, Elisa expressed sadness, Goliath, shame.

"They are not gargoyles," Goliath said, shaking his head. "But they were…human...once."

Images swarmed in her head making the song stuck in her head even more so stuck in her head. Rachel swallowed. Elisa glanced back noticing Rachel's stalling. "Don't worry. They're friends."

Rachel shuffled purposefully behind them.

"I am quite surprised to see Taurus," Elisa said, half to Rachel half to Goliath.

"In deed, I am as well," Goliath spoke. "Why does he visit you?"

"He borrows her books," Elisa answered for Rachel.

"And watches CSI, all the time," Rachel piped up. Goliath glanced back. Rachel gulped. "He always insists on returning my books. I've been trying to show him humans aren't as bad as he thinks we are, and it just keeps blowing up in my face, and this happens." Rachel pressed her hand against her forehead as the gravity of the night crashed down on her shoulders. She felt so heavy head she kneeled down, letting go of the Pomeranian's leaches. "Oh my god. This is all my fault."

Elisa kneeled down beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's going to be okay. He's fine, and it's not your fault, not at all."

"I know, but I feel he'll blame me for it, I just know it," Rachel cried. He seemed so angry when she tried to help him, at humanity, and it seemed like he aimed his aggression at her. Or at least it seemed like that. In her current state of mind and situation, anything was possible now.

"I promise he won't blame you," Elisa said with a smile. "We better get your dogs before they run away."

Rachel looked up and saw the dogs skittering after Bronx who was plodding down the tunnel way on some predetermined path, a rather queer pack—a gargoyle dog and five annoying, yapping Pomeranians. They disappeared around the corner, only shadows remained on the wall, and soon, those shadows disappeared. There was yipping followed by a SPLASH and whimpering. Four sets of doggie paws raced back. Someone pawed down the tunnel on two legs, dripping along the way.

Claw shyly pawed down towards Goliath, Elisa, and a young woman, cupping the tiny dripping, Mr. Wiggles in his massive hands. Moments earlier, the little dog raced down the tunnel with its pack mates, finally free of the hand that tightly gripped their leashes, which dragged behind them. Claw was making his rounds when the little dogs came upon him, the four managed to stop on a dime and with matrix like ability they turned and ran up the tunnel they came down. Mr. Wiggles could not stop as quickly, if he wanted really wanted to, and charged Claw before sliding into the muck and into an open drainage pipe.

"I think Claw has saved your dog, Rachel," Elisa said.

The winged tiger-man held his hands out and offered Rachel Mr. Wiggles, who for a moment lost his valor and fluffiness in a viscous soup of muck. Rachel took Mr. Wiggles out of Claw's hands.

"Thank you," Rachel said.

"This is Claw," Elisa introduced. "Claw this is Rachel. She's here to see our special visitor."

Claw nodded and grinned, showing a mouthful of sharp incisors and canines that put Goliath's teeth to shame. Claw's eyes lacked the primal spark of a tiger's. His eyes were feline indeed, but there was something eternally human about them, replacing the fiery spark with soulful, liquid anguish.

"It's nice to meet you, Claw," Rachel spoke slowly. Claw nodded and smiled, not revealing any teeth this time. He didn't make a sound, Rachel's eye brow rose.

"Claw has been robbed over his voice by the…mutation…that has turned him into this," Goliath explained.

"Oh…" Rachel said softly and looked up, the tiger morph looked away. "I'm sorry."

"Claw," Elisa said the tiger morph, "will you take Rachel to Taurus? I need to speak with Derek. Rachel you'll be fine with Claw. He's just like Tigger, only with fangs, wings, and claws, and not as nearly destructive."

Elisa and Goliath went down the opposite tunnel that the Pomeranians and then Claw came from. Claw guided Rachel down the other tunnel. Along the pathway, to Rachel's surprise, there were many people milling around, homeless, junkies, prostitutes, runaways, and a myriad of over riff-raff. These ones, however, seemed more content than the ones that dwell on the surface. They greeted Claw with waves and Claw responded with silent waves and smiles.

"You help these people, don't you?" Rachel asked Claw. The mutate nodded. He nudged her down another tunnel and opened a metal door reading "Gen-U-Tech laboratories" in bold dark blue letters on the smoky window.

As they entered the room, Claw pushed Rachel off to the side, towards the wall on her right, quite forcefully.

"What the?" Rachel said, as Claw stretched his wing slightly.

"Hey hey hey. What'cha hiding there _buddy_?" a voice spoke up.

Claw nudged her closer to wall, nearly pressing her against it. He was heavily exhaling, rumbling in his chest as cats do before they fight. The trigger hairs on the back of his neck rose.

"Oh come on, Claw, why do you have to hide things from your dear old friend? You know for a fact I'll share with you, that's what friends do."

The voice was strong, brash, bold, and as smart ass as they come. It was almost so brash, like a set of cymbals smashing together, that Rachel's ears ached upon hearing it.

"Oh, what is that? Is that a girl, Claw? And some cute wittle puppies! Got some plans tonight, buddy?"

The word buddy, like when Taurus says the word human, was spat out, but in this case, it wasn't spat out on the ground, but in Claw's face.

"Women just dig the large silent type, brooding. Why don't you tell her the story about the hidden guns, the hostile takeover, and how you backstabbed me in the end! Why don't you tell her that?"

Claw rumbled louder. Rachel stepped out from underneath Claw's wing to see another mutate, similar to Claw in that he was humanoid cat (mountain lion or bobcat perhaps) with bat wings, unlike Claw, he a dark brown and considerably louder and brasher, like milk chocolate and dark chocolate. The other mutate was surrounded by a thick clear barrier, like the glass that protects the teller at the bank. Rachel did not guess to why he was in there.

"Hello, there Angel Face," the other mutate spoke up, faking happiness and a smile. "I'm Claw's dearest buddy Fang."

He smiled, viciously exposing his namesake. She had seen great white sharks with nicer smiles, and they rip seals in half.

"Aw come on, don't give me the same silent treatment as your buddy over there. What, you deaf? Never seen a catman in a cage before? Blame your buddy for that," Fang said. "We're all victims here down in the Labyrinth. Some of us are tormented in the inside; others are tormented by being locked inside."

He stalked them along the glass wall, just like the wildcats at the zoo. The wildcats conveyed the feeling that they did not belong in their cages, while Fang clearly deserved his containment.

"Now honey, don't play hard to get. You're here to see that quarter ton of Whoppers, aren't you? Saw them dragging him in there; something sure did a number on him, huh? He didn't by chance have a broken leg? Guy must have bad aim. Angel face, why the cold shoulder, I know you can at least see me. You see that switch over there, how 'bout let me go, and I'll show you what a good buddy ol' Fang can be and show you a good time that Claw over there and the walking Slim Jim can't show you, what do you say to that Angel Face?" Fang said from the corner of his "room".

Rachel turned to face him. "Anyone ever tell you that you have the face of a weasel?"

"Hahaha, so you can talk! And what a sense of humor, how bout you say that again! Face of a weasel! Never heard that one before. It's always been 'hey freak', 'what's new pussycat?', 'how many mutates does it take to light up a light bulb?', or 'monster, but weasel face, that's a new one." There was some dry, hacking laughter. "Come on Angel Face, let's not get spiteful here. Just trying to get some polite chitchat here, I don't have the opportunity to talk to people that often, or at least one's as good looking or clean or as nice smelling as you. Aw come on! You're colder than some of the crack whores I've seen, and let me tell you, in this place, you see a lot."

Claw opened a door and gestured Rachel to enter. Rachel quickly crossed into the other and Claw shut the door behind them with a slam. Fang laughed in success, his laughs echoing through the thick metal door.

&&&

"Aye lad, it has been quite a while since I have seen so skilled an opponent, you may beat me in this game. So they have chess where you're from?" Hudson said moving a black pawn forward. "These folk in this era ignore such the fine art of chess. Aye, they seem quite busy with their music and superstars and…" there was beeps and clicks and cheering from another room, "videogames."

"In deed," Taurus answered moving his white piece, "it is quite an interesting society. It is quite…perplexing. As for the art of…chess…we have a similar game in New Olympus. It itself is a lost art, but I have come to enjoy it, from my father actually. It is hard to find those who even have the most rudimentary skills at this game."

_It is not like you really tried searching. For all you know Calypso could play, _a small, light voice, sounding like Proteus spoke in the back of his head, his inner demon, and his conscious. Every once and a while it would declare some bitter, agonizingly truthful comment to haunt his befuddled, impassive mind.

_I wonder what Calypso is doing right now_ Taurus thought with his own inner voice, to chase away the voice of Proteus and to remind himself he had at least _one_ close friend in New Olympus.

_Some where in New Olympus…_

A hand came through the crack in Taurus's door, holding a thick folder filled with papers.

"Hey Chief Taurus! Here's the papers Boreas promised you! We haven't seen you around the city much, just what are you—you're not Chief Taurus," Ahka exclaimed then blandly stated.

Calypso, in her sea green nightgown, was lying on the couch watching TV while Achelous contentedly blurped in his aquarium. Bowls of nuts and snack foods sat on Taurus's coffee table.

"Either I'm in the wrong apartment again, or I just walked in the middle of something," Ahka stated, fearing he would turn around and see Chief Taurus coming out of his bed room in his undergarments, or something far more revealing.

"Chief Taurus is not here," Calypso answered. "I'm just watching his fish. He was lonely, so I came over. Right Achelous?"

The fish squirmed and bobbed its head.

"You talk to fish?" Ahka said.

"Ah duh, I'm a water nymph," Calypso said. "You must be the new guy, Taurus was talking about."

"Yeah. So where is Chief Taurus?" Ahka asked, glancing around the apartment.

"He found a new hobby. He's been working on the Minotaur history thing he's been obsessing over when he's not obsessing over Proteus," Calypso said. "He's down at the library, I think."

"I'm not allowed in the library any more," Ahka said sadly.

Calypso did not answer, but noisily dug around in her snack bowl.

His ears perked up as he peeked at the screen. "Hey, is this the wrestling finals?"

"Yep," Calypso answered popping snack food into her mouth.

"Move over," Ahka said tossing the folder onto the table. "Hey, pass me something to drink."

Calypso handed Ahka a can of New Olympian soft drink. Ahka flicked it open, chugged a few mouthfuls then set it down on top of the folder.

"Hey, do you want to order takeout?" he asked noticing the phone on the stand by the couch.

_Back in New York City…_

Hudson surveyed the board. He rested his head on his hand then cocked at eyebrow at Taurus, his head facing the board but his good eye looking up at the minotaur, a bandage around one shoulder and still in his now dry swimming trunks. "So Taurus, what are you doing in New York City, didn't you detest humans, and what is with the clothing?"

Taurus became very aware of his now dry trunks, he looked down at the swimsuit, embarrassed. "It is a gift from an acquaintance who has offered to show me many aspects of the human world."

_And inadvertently showed me more aspects…_

"And how have you thought of the human world so far?" Hudson asked, moving a pawn.

The minotaur did not answer. He glanced off to the left side and huffed, then moved a chess piece. "Humanity, has not lived up to my expectations. Elisa is not like the humans of old, and she is not like the humans of now either."

"Lad, humanity is not as evil as you think it is," Hudson said. He tapped on his temple, then moved a piece. "Lad, I am not as educated as you are, or even educated as the many down on their luck humans in this shelter. But what I do have is experience."

"Wisdom," Taurus thought out loudly moving another pawn.

"Correct lad, and I am too humble to admit I may have more wisdom than you. But someone once told me that what is knowledge without the wisdom to back it up?" Hudson said, knocking off Taurus's pawn. "Words, that's all. Empty words, mean nothing. Like a bucket full of air."

Taurus nodded and looked down at the board. He knocked over one of Hudson's pawns. "What wrongs have humans done to you, friend Hudson? To gain such wisdom, one must live a long life, and have seen much trouble."

"Aye," Hudson said despondently. He was silent as he studied the board, then took down Taurus's queen. "Unfortunately, Taurus, things are not as black and white as this board. No person is as obviously black or white, good or evil, as each queen, pawn, king, or knight, not each block, or path, is purely white, or purely black. Things are not as they appear; nothing is obvious, or genuine."

Taurus scratched along his lower jaw, rubbing at bone, ears flicking in thought. Taurus moved his knight, knocking over another one of Hudson's chess pieces. "We are not speaking of people here, not of their alignment, but of their behavior, their treatment of others, their respect of their surroundings and that which lay with in the surroundings—this world, physically and mentally, that humans dwell in."

Quickly Hudson took down another one of Taurus's pieces as if the attack was long and well planned. Hudson held up his black pawn. "Isn't a couple millennia a little too long to be holding a grudge? Especially with all the other mechanical, technological advancements your people have made? Is not time for a social advancement? Lad, this is black. What does black represent to you?"

"Black is darkness, a representation evilness, if you wish to call it that," Taurus stated, moving his king.

Hudson held the tiny, insignificant piece in his tan palm, almost cradling it. "And black to me lad? It is reminds me of night, and night to a gargoyle is a good thing. It doesn't take years of wisdom or technological advancement to figure that out. And your white pieces—they are the sun. And when the sun is out, I become stone, I can't move, I can't defend myself. So your white to me might be my evil."

He set the little pawn back down on the board. Taurus moved another piece silently, removing another of Hudson's pawns, his second to last, from the board.

"Things still are not as clear as this board," Hudson continued, clearing another piece. Taurus moved another piece. "You flip this board over, and you see its grey-blue back, no obvious right path to take. One may end up in an endless cycle, going around in circles for years, if one does not simply step off of this nonexistent path and see the wide possibilities and realizations that suddenly spread out."

Hudson moved his tiny pawn. Taurus lost another piece. "Things are not as clear as these bits either. But even these bits, they have cracks, bumps, small imperfections, defects. Not one is perfect, and these imperfections mean that not all choices, decisions, or principles in life are correct. Then again, not everything in life is as perfectly black and white as these either. People are not that distinct. If one was to crack them all up and place them in a pile, and try putting them back together with a blindfold on. Small pieces may get lost, and maybe a black section fits in better than a white section, and the other away around. You end up with cracked, chipped pawns made of a variety of white and black. Like real people. No one is in the right, no one is the wrong. There are some that are more 'evil' than others, and some that are more 'good', but most, are in the median, everyone, knights, queens, kings, rooks, and pawns. Of course if eyes are squinted, or if eyes were kept closed, some may appear black and those thought white will remain white."

"I believe you have beaten me, Hudson. A good game, amazing what a change such a small pawn can make in a game," Taurus stated.

"In deed lad," Hudson said with a smile, tossing his winning pawn up and down his hand. He set the pawn down in the center of the cleared board. "Remember that lad. It was a good game, and I am up for another one, but unfortunately it near day break. I want to catch some early showings before roosting."

"Have a good rest then," Taurus said picking up the pawn as Hudson left. He chuckled to himself as he held the pawn up to eye level. He jumped when he heard a peep. Lowering the pawn, Taurus revealed a red face, nervous, but appearing to be at the point of typical emotional explosion Miss Rachel Wesley. She had a heavy looking duffle bag over her shoulder, and one hand held the leashes of the always emotionally explosive Pomeranians. The dogs greeted him aggressively and loudly, attempting to jump up, but barely making it past his knees.

Claw peeked in from behind Rachel then ducked back shyly and worriedly. Rachel smiled ear to ear, letting the emotion seep out rather than explode. She said quietly, perhaps tonight was a bit too much for her, "I brought your clothes."

"Thank you, Miss Rachel Wesley," Taurus said appreciatively taking the heavy duffle bag. Taurus felt scantily clad. He turned for a split second, opening the duffel bag, just to feel a poke at his elbow. He turned. Rachel held up his glasses, smiling broadly. Taurus snatched them off of her.

Taurus pulled his clothing out of the bag preparing to change, but Rachel remained, in fact, she moved closer, head lowered towards her chest. Her hands clenched around the leashes of the dogs, wringing them tightly.

"Pardon me Miss Rachel Wesley, but I will have to change into more comfortable clothing. If you don't mind…" Taurus gestured to the door, trying not to sound inconsiderate as he tried to be considerate.

Rachel's face jolted up, and she nodded, the words forming in her mouth fell out silently. The door shut, Taurus changed quickly and attempted to maintain his dignity (mainly by shoving the swimming trunks in the deepest recesses of the pack as possible) as he opened the door out onto the labyrinth.

"Hey hey hey, it looks like the sleepy beauty has awakened," a snide voice loudly spoke up. "And you act like you're not into furries, Angel Face. I take it you're a…roughrider. Tell me, do you use whip cream or steak sauce, angelface?"

There was a high pitched yip, and at first Taurus thought he stepped on a dog. He realized it was Rachel blanching. Taurus's ears rose with a curt snort. Rachel's face burned red and her knuckles turned blood red and bleached right as she gripped the leash.

"Just ignore him Taurus," Rachel stated dryly through gnashed teeth and gave the minotaur a push towards the door. The tiger mutate who trailed behind them nodded in agreement. "He's a creep."

Fang smiled (sneered?) at Rachel's comment as she pushed Taurus passed his glass walled cell. In a sudden movement Taurus pushed Rachel beside him. He lowered his head, his horns and snorted.

"I would advise you leave her alone. It is evidentially clear to me that you belong in that dwelling," Taurus blandly stated. He glared down at Fang, and then added in an even deeper voice. "Don't make it anymore evident, otherwise I will find a proper punishment fit for you."

Fang stepped backwards. Rachel wanted to think it was because Taurus was now standing and glaring down at the wildcat mutate, a divergence from the limp form that was carried past hours earlier. Any nature says that standing up to a predatory animal can easily confuse and frighten it, and what could be more disquieting for a big cat than a bull staring right in the eye? Parts of her thought that maybe the big words confused Fang into deference, but she was still equally proud anyhow. For a second he was quiet as they passed until their backs were facing him. From his spot he taunted again. The mutate remained on all fours, not quite cowering, but silent to say the least.

"Aw come on? What's the hurry? Why don't you just stay behind? We're just one big happy family here, ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY; your friend here would be a nice addition. Doesn't talk too much does he? You see our buddy Claw here hates it when someone butts in on his conversations, he such a talker, talks your ear off if he gets the chance. What? Too upscale for a place like this? Aw come on, giving me the cold shoulder angelface?" Fang spoke up. He snarled at Rachel's disregard, though Taurus looked back. "Beefcake. Beeeeeeeeeeeffffffffcake!"

Claw shut the large metal door with a slam. A muted "BBBBEEEEEFFFFFCCCCCAAAAAKKKKEEEE!" could be heard through the door ended with an accomplished sounding laugh.

Claw offered a sympathetic smile to the rattled Rachel and then offered her the leashes of the Pomeranians who yanked Rachel, who just wanted to rest for a moment, away. The dogs happily jumped at the back of Taurus's legs.

"Friend Elisa and Goliath, it is a great pleasure to meet you again," Taurus said stately.

"It's good to see you too Taurus," Elisa said, grasping his hands.

"Yes," Goliath agreed, his voice turned gravely serious. "It is nice to see you again. Proteus is not on the loose again, is he?"

Taurus held his finger up and cocked at eyebrow in the direction of Rachel. "Is there a place where we can speak, in solitude?"

"Yes, this way," Goliath said.

"Rachel, stay here for the time being. I need to speak with Goliath and Elisa," Taurus stated in a low voice, a tone matching the tone from the first time they met. Rachel paused, and stepped back obediently.

Down a narrow alleyway, narrow for the gargoyle with his wings and the minotaur with his broad shoulders, they traveled.

"So tell me Taurus, what are you doing with a college student?" Elisa asked smugly, interestedly.

"A series of unfortunate events," Taurus stated, rubbing his temple. "I could have easily returned her books without anything of this happening, but the Fates were not in my favor. Forced vacation, Pepsi, poaching, shootings, muggings, Spongebob, all in the matter of a month."

"And Proteus…" Goliath growled.

"Is in his jail cell, locked," Taurus stated, his tone again serious reminded of another turn of fate. "It is most assuredly he will not escape again."

"Forced vacation?" Elisa said. "Boreas forced you to take a vacation?"

"Yes," Taurus, "do not remind me."

They spoke in hushed harsh tones. Elisa and Goliath's slight hostility ended after Taurus conclusively convinced that he was not Proteus in disguise. He could hear the echoes of Rachel conversing with someone, most likely the other gargoyles since Claw could not talk back.

There was a cracking sound, like a chasm moving up a stone wall. Taurus turned to see Goliath's stony skin form and freeze. There was startled squealed from another room.

"It's morning already?" Taurus said.

"Yes," Elisa answered.

"I better check on Miss Rachel Wesley," Taurus stated simply, despite the fact he was enjoying Elisa's presence. Goliath standing over them, his eyes frozen as if glaring, was unnerving.

Rachel was sitting on the back of her chair, her back pressed hard against the wall. All five Pomeranians, free, were scratching at the now solid Bronx. A group of gargoyle statues were frozen around her, and Rachel was frozen in shock.

"Miss Rachel Wesley," Taurus stated tartly at her, "it's not safe to be standing on a chair."

Rachel melted down into the seat. "Is, is that, is that normal?"

"It's normal, it's how they sleep," Elisa answered. Rachel got out of her seat. She looked at Taurus for a moment then looked away to Elisa.

"Thanks Elisa," She said, clasping her hands. "I really appreciate all you've done. Without you, I would never have found Taurus."

"It's nothing, all in a night's work," Elisa said gesturing. "Come on, I'll show you a quick way home."

Rachel turned and smiled at Taurus. "Let's go Taurus!"

Taurus huffed and put his hands on his hips and followed behind, his head looking towards the concrete floor of the tunnels. He passed Claw who appeared to be offering him a sympathetic and understanding glance.

&&&

It was two hours pass daylight when Rachel and Taurus finally made it back to her apartment. Trudging up the stairs felt like climbing Mt. Everest in Rachel's opinion or climbing Mt. Olympus in Taurus's mindset. Rachel set the Pomeranians free in her apartment instead of placing them in their baby pen. Rachel tossed the leashes down on her table and kneeled down to untie her shoes. She was quiet…hurt…nervous…worried…anxious…and it was forming a suffocating cloud of despair and torrential downpour in the room.

Taurus shut the door. The click of the door closing must have been a trigger. Taurus only pulled his hand a few inches away from the knob when he felt a pair of arms around his neck, supporting Rachel's full weight. Her face was buried in his neck; a geyser of hot tears ran down her cheek into his fur. She still wore one shoe, untied as testament of the spontaneity of the moment. Taurus's knees buckled inward, and his arms flayed until he managed to maintain his balance to keep from falling forward and crushing the human. Rachel was unmoved; her cheek pressed securely again the space between his jawbone and neck like a puzzle piece, her mouth a millimeter from his ear. Her warm breath was uncomfortable, but not nearly as discomforting as the hot tears.

"I'm so glad you're okay. I was so worried about you," Rachel whispered, her voice stressed in joy and fret. Taurus had to peel her off. He pushed her a few inches away.

"Miss Rachel Wesley…do you feel…alright?" Taurus asked giving her a slight shake, his hands completely engulfed her shoulders.

Embarrassed, Rachel smiled and removed Taurus's hands one at a time, the right one first, then the left. She kept a hold of his left hand. "I guess you can say I'm fine now."

Taurus pulled away and wobbled over to the couch, plunking down on a cushion. Taurus removed his top, gently fingering the gunshot wound. The skin around the gash, was grotesquely bruised, he could see it through his fur. It was the same exact shoulder Proteus wounded earlier. Bumped in Rachel's display, the wound rippled pain outwards through Taurus's entire arm. He began to peel off the sticky bandage.

"Here, let me look at that," Rachel said. He did not even notice her walking over to the couch and kneel down on the couch cushion beside him. She forcefully pushed his fingers away from the bandage. "If you pull too hard you might take the scab off with the bandage."

It was a slow, painful process as Rachel methodically peeled the bandage and messy gauze off Taurus's wound. She ran her fingers around the outside of the gash, now a deep, massive reddish-brown scab, testing the swollen uncut flesh around it. Taurus did not flinch, though his hand tightly gripped the arm hold, threatening to break it asunder.

"Do you know if they cleaned this out?" Rachel asked, as she examined the red swelling, her thumb pressing into the corner of the gash. "This swelling means it's infected. Infections can occur fast in warm wet weather."

"I honestly cannot Miss Rachel Wesley. My current state in the labyrinth during the time in which they cleaned the wound was catatonic," Taurus answered as Rachel relieved the pressure on his shoulder. Rachel paused for a moment, looking at Taurus then his shoulder.

"You were out cold then," she stated, "you could have told me that. I have to go get my first aid kit. I'll be right back."

Rachel returned with what appeared to be a tackle box. She was carrying the first aid kit by its handle with both her hands. She sat it down on the coffee table. Taurus looked at it unconcernedly until Rachel opened it revealing tiny shelves filled with a variety of gauzes, bandages, tonics, pain killers, cotton swabs, cotton balls, and other tools of her trade. Taurus's ears flicked.

"This is my/Pomeranians med box. I bought a variety of different first aid items to learn how to use them," Rachel said embarrassingly.

"You must really love your work," Taurus stated, then mentally kicked himself, wincing at the force of his words. Rachel jumped.

"Are you okay?" Rachel asked.

"I am fine. Do what you were going to do," Taurus stated offering her his shoulder but turning his face way towards the door, chewing at his fingernail broodingly.

Taurus felt Rachel swab the wound clean with warm water and several long cotton swabs, removing any debris or dirt from the corners of the wound. Every minute or so, she would toss a dirty swab into a garbage can and pick up a new one. Rachel probed the wound doggedly.

"We have to keep it clean," Rachel explained as she worked. Taurus nodded and yawned.

Rachel worked tediously. She wadded a sheet of gauze and pressed a small bottle into it, turning the snowy white sheet an unattractive orange brown, the color of sewer sludge.

"What is that?" Taurus asked.

"Iodine," Rachel explained kindly, "one of the best antiseptics out there. This may sting a little."

She braced his underarm with her hand, holding it steady. She pressed the gauze against Taurus's gash as Taurus looked away towards the door.

Inwardly, Taurus laughed at Rachel's warning…for the moment. Outwardly…

"BY THE HOLY LIGHTENING BOLTS OF ZEUS!"

&&&

Taurus was a sleep on the couch—rather half asleep on the couch. The other half, his upper body lay on the floor. It was a strange sight after waking from her own exhaustion provoked nap for Rachel to see as she walked out into her living room. One coal black hoof rested at the top of the couch. His other hoof rested on the arm rest. Taurus's hand lay on his chest like a mummy, eyes closed tightly in deep sleep. Rachel made herself a mug of coffee and squatted down by the minotaur's head, studying his face. She brushed at the tension in his face, amazed at how stiff he appeared even in the embrace of sleep. Taurus twitched his nostrils and swatted at her hand.

"You know it's not healthy to sleep like that, it's bad for the back," Rachel commented as his eyes fluttered opened. The minotaur's eyes were still half opened as he looked up at the human. He snorted irritably.

With a thump, Taurus pulled his body off of the couch and onto the floor. The dog kennels shook on the other side of the room and something fell in the cabinet with a clang. He lay on his stomach, arms crossed. "What time is it?"

"It's around four," Rachel answered.

"I think I am going to sleep for a few more hours. I am returning tonight," Taurus stated. He rested his head on his arms. "Do not think of it as your fault, Rachel. I have business to attend to when I return home. I felt it as the utmost need to return you books."

"Oh," Rachel said, putting her back against the armrest of the chair, sipping her coffee. The reflection of Rachel in the dark coffee sighed hopefully and rolled her eyes.

Taurus closed his eyes.

"Rachel," Taurus said.

"Yes?"

"Thank you, for searching for me," Taurus stated dryly. "Goliath told me you called Elisa the moment you realized I was missing. How did you know that Elisa was involved in my 'disappearance'?"

Rachel smiled. "Dumb luck. I was desperate and worried sick about you. You don't seem like the kind of guy who would run through New York City in a pair of swimming trunks, bleeding at the shoulder. I mean a lot of people have, but you don't seem like the kind of person to just run off like that. Taurus, you're my friend, of course I was worried. I just wanted to make sure you were all right. Someone could have found you. Who knows what they could have done to you or where you would have ended up. Then your homelands could have been discovered." Rachel paused, swallowed then said. "You could have died. I mean…I…mean…I mean…your family would be worried about you."

Taurus rolled onto his back and put his hands behind his head. "I do not have a family."

Rachel startled. "Oh…sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up."

Taurus rolled onto his side. "It is okay, Miss Rachel Wesley. If you do not mind I must catch up on my sleep before departure."

Rachel stood up. "Okay, I understand. I'll let you sleep."

Taurus huffed in response.

He silently huffed as twenty minutes later, Rachel draped a blanket over him.

&&&

"I must thank you again graciously for your hospitality Miss Rachel Wesley," Taurus said, mindlessly rubbing his bicep.

Leaning against a counter, Rachel Wesley smiled. "You're welcome Mister Taurus. Anytime. Your shoulder isn't bugging you, is it? I could look at it again, if you want me to."

"It aches, but it feels much…better," Taurus stated quickly.

For a moment, there was silence, at least between Rachel and Taurus. The dogs skittered up and down the floor, sniffing at any nooks and crannies near the cabinets while Coco in his usual cockatiel zeal, whole heartedly sang from his cage.

_If you like Pina Coladas and getting caught by Cops, coming up next on Fox after a new episode of Ally McBeal. Ohmygod! They killed Kenny. You Peanut butter turds! I see Dead HOLYLIGHTNINGBOLTSOFZEUS._

Rachel giggled as Taurus looked shocked.

"I hope that you're not mad at me for all the trouble that's been caused in the past two days," Rachel said. "I didn't get to tell you that I was sorry. For everything."

"It's not your fault, Miss Rachel Wesley. I do not blame you for any of the events that have happened," Taurus stated. Rachel smiled, a blush spreading across her cheeks and nose.

"Are you going to be coming back soon?" Rachel asked as Taurus slid the door open. "I don't have school for much longer, and it will be summer break. I don't start my summer internship until June."

The minotaur looked at the floor as he answered. "No."

"Oh."

"This will be the last time I will visit the human lands," Taurus answered. "I am grateful for your hospitality, your medical care, and the enriching opportunities you have provided for me. I hope everything works out for you in this college and you succeed in your dreams. May life treat you well."

"Oh," Rachel said, looking away, clutching her fist. Taurus turned towards the outside. "Taurus."

The minotaur turned and received a kindler, gentler hug than earlier, and a little bit more expected. Rachel put her arms around Taurus's midsection, instead of his neck this time. Unlike earlier, Rachel was a bit more unwilling to let go. Taurus with his one hand full, and his shoulder of his other arm aching, could do little to stop it or respond…if he really wanted to. It was not that he welcomed Rachel's hug, but he felt cutting it short would be detrimental for the human.

"I'll miss you," she said, giving him a final tight squeeze before loosening her grasp. "I've had the best time of my life. And thanks for saving my life…twice."

"You are welcome Miss Rachel Wesley, it is all part of my job," Taurus stated and stepped back since Rachel took her time pulling away.

Rachel stood silently in front of Taurus as he slid the door shut. A not so silent Mr. Wiggles was at Rachel's feet watching the minotaur ascend up the ladder. He glanced down, peeking through the glass doors. Rachel weakly waved goodbye into the distance. For a brief second, Taurus could not discern Mr. Wiggles's eyes from Rachel's. He shook his head and continued climbing.

&&&

It was around ten when Rachel mechanically began to pick up her apartment. There were plates that needed washed. Books that needed put away. Floors that needed swept. Dogs that needed bathed and placed in their crates for the night. And the spare bedroom needed sprayed down agian with an odor absorber.

Rachel picked up her ancient, worn duffle bag. She yanked out Taurus's balled up swimming trunks. Laughing at the absurd image of a panicky looking minotaur squashing up the trunks into a baseball size wad, she unfolded the trunks above the coffee table. Then she crumpled the shorts back up, tears welling from the corner of her eyes, spilling out. Three hours of dammed emotion gushed forward onto her hands, her shirt, and lap. Damn stress, damn insane, weird, random life, damn city…

Something fell out of a pocket onto the table top.

Rachel picked it up.

She held the black pawn between her fingertips.


	8. Dining Room Blitz

_Brownie points if you find the ACDC Ballroom Blitz lyric. _

**Dining Room Blitz **

Taurus returned to his apartment to find it in almost perfect condition. The kitchen was clean, the carpet was mostly clean except for muddy footprints and food crumbs, and the coffee table was covered in papers, several bearing the ring marks of soft drink cans and clear grease marks, and there was the heavy, lingering odor of fatty take out in the air. Achelous did not greet Taurus with his usual fervor, meaning he was well cared for. Taurus tossed his satchel onto the ground, his shoulder aching with residual pain and itchiness. He grabbed his remote from underneath the pile of papers. Sounds from the end of a wrestling match, blasted his ears and shook the room. Deftly Taurus turned the station down and changed to a more, calming programming. A quintet of satyr syrinx played softly in the background.

He grabbed and a handful of food stained papers and purposefully strolled to the kitchen, in desperate need of a pain killer—the strongest possible. Taurus leaned against his counter, a class of water, fizzing with painkiller, in one hand, the papers in another. Many were mainly updates on the prison; others were papers that only needed his signature. No actual records for him to take care of, if he really cared to at the moment. At the bottom of the pile was an unfolded piece of parchment, written in Boreas's handwriting.

Taurus sighed heavily and choked down the remaining large gulp of painkiller as he read _There will be a meeting of the houses in a week's time. _

A meeting of the ruling (and few remaining) houses on New Olympus…wonderful. Why don't they just hold the house meeting in the same exact stadium the wrestling finals are held in? Or better, the New Olympian jail? He heard there was a new leader of House Cecrops, and Polaris had his undergarments in a bunch over it. Apparently he, the oldest, but a far off relative of Cecrops, was supposed to receive the chair, but the chair was given to a younger…female…member, a bastard daughter of Cecrops who was a performance artist, a dancer, at the local theatre who had a flair for elaborate moves and expensive clothing. She was rushed into office the moment of her discovery, by other house members who had the choice between Polaris and an elder son of Cecrops. Polaris was a…traditionalist…the most base, crudest form of one. He wanted humans as slaves and cowering, and his women doing the same. Polaris was an avid reader of old text and mythology. Polaris was seduced by the text and interpreted into something he could use to support his already growing misogyny (five wives, and several hateful mistresses later). He felt by following the old scrolls New Olympus could become some theatrical mecca, much like their ancient homelands. Polaris was so base, so crude, violent that he was the only person that apparently Helios did not ask to join his movement, not that he was having much luck with it. Polaris, who was an important senator, would be at the meeting, meaning that will be tension, at the least and least likely, and fighting at the most and most likely. Taurus hated house meetings with a passion, not only did he have to deal with the "teeny-tiny" issues of the nobles, he had deal with the constant squabbling and hissing as well as the snobby attitude of others and the ignorance of most. Many barely left their clan houses, and most died in the same bed in which they were conceived in.

Taurus had little to do with the clan houses, once many now few. House Minotaurus still remained, albeit very small, only a few minotaurs still bore Minotaurus as their surname. Taurus himself bore the Minotaurus surname, though his name was not as powerful as the one in the house. The Minotaurus surname was adopted by a grandson, Manchurus, of the Minotaur who wanted to honor his grandfather. His brother, Sparta, (Taurus's ancestor) adopted the name as well. Manchurus's descendents however, controlled the house, not Sparta's descendents. According to Taurus's father, the reason involved a woman named Selene who Sparta chose to breed with and stay bred with, only producing a few children instead of fathering many, many children like Manchurus, who was successfully allowing the minotaur race to continue as well as taking advantage of having multiple wives (a tradition ended when the New Olympians landed on the remaining island of Atlantis). When houses were created, Manchurus's side of the family won control of the house by a landside, and held it since then.

There was a furious knocking on the door as Taurus read the rest of the letter. The eager pounding could only come from a tiny fist of a certain naiad.

"Come in Calypso," Taurus said. "The door is unlocked. You know that."

The door opened, not with as much gusto as normally depicted by Calypso, but quickly enough that it could be no one else but Calypso. Calypso shut the door. Today, in place of her normal white dress and gold sandals and accessories, the fresh water nymph wore a light blue gown, cut at an angle to her knees. The fabric was just a shade darker than her light blue skin. In place of her sandals, she wore a pair of sequined slip on shoes, and a mother of pearl bangle was around her wrist. The freshwater pearls she wore in her hair were removed, and in their place were silver clips. She looked at Taurus coyly, and tried to pull the hem of the gown down over her exposed knee when she noticed him looking her over like a witness or suspect to a crime.

"Are you going on a date tonight Miss Cestus?" Taurus asked reading over the paper after a brief distraction.

"Actually, no…I just bought these…yes…a few hours ago," Calypso squawked. "I was trying them on when I heard your door open."

Taurus nodded.

"How were the human lands?" Calypso asked. "What did you and Rae-CHEL do? Did you see deer again? Which, by the way, I still have that book. Do you want it back?"

Taurus gagged.

"What?" Calypso asked.

"Nothing," Taurus said, hitting his chest. "Acid reflux…I always get this way before a house meeting."

"Are they as bad as everyone says they are?" Calypso asked.

"Worse," Taurus answered. "They are just like the wrestling finals, only someone gets hits in the back of the head with a chair, someone gets their face slammed off of a table, someone throws salt, and a statue gets broken over someone's thigh. By the way, who won?"

"No one as of yet, Atlas and Troy are currently tied champions, twenty-one wins and four losses both. They are rescheduled to fight with in the next two weeks," Calypso answered.

"How did Ursa do?" Taurus asked.

"Bad year," Calypso answered. "He was out in the preliminary rounds, messed his knee up, torn ligaments. I think he's retiring after the champion battle."

"Serious?" Taurus asked, scratching his chin. "I liked him."

"Well he's old," Calypso said. "Old news, what he's been wrestling, for fifteen years?"

"At least since I started my internship," Taurus answered, then grumbled, "if not earlier."

"So, what did you and Ra-CHEL do?" Calypso asked.

"Nothing of particular excitement," Taurus answered blandly. "Or worry."

"Oh," Calypso said. "So, what do you think of my dress?"

"It's nice," Taurus stated nonchalantly.

"Oh," Calypso said, "thanks. I have to get back to my apartment. _Demigods_ is coming on. I think they're going to say who the father of Lucrectia's baby today."

The naiad started to the door.

"Calypso?" Taurus spoke up.

"Yes?" Calypso said.

"According to this letter from Boreas, I am to be accompanied with a date to the house meeting," Taurus stated. "If you do not mind, and have a night to spare, do you wish to escort me? That is, if you feel safe and comfortable coming to the meeting."

"Of course!" Calypso squealed before darting out of the door.

Taurus smiled as he poured a mug of herbal tea.

&&&

_Two Days late, Taurus's apartment…_

Taurus spent the better part of the two days sleeping. The pain medication he took to dull the pain of the shoulder, dulled not only his shoulder, but his brain. As his body slept, his mind wandered in cluttered twists, turns, and spins. He had never had dreams so distorted, so lengthy, since the murder of his father. He tossed and turned, dreaming about people, just people, that was it. Conversations with any random person he had met in the past few months, he did not even have to know a name, and they would appear. Characters from shows randomly emerged into his dreams as if he was part of their show and some how moving the plot along.

Hudson and he played chess in a New Olympus tea shop, and randomly one of those annoying dogs of Rachel's neighbor would show up and run off with a pawn or just be the general nuisance. He could never tell them apart, sometimes they were the Pomeranians, other times they weren't, sometimes they were just traditional New Olympian lap dogs, but they always had the aura of those dogs. Then the scene would change, an opening of a door, a flash of light, a vehicle passing by, in the dream. Taurus would awake, and then quickly fall back to sleep to another entire another mind boggling dream.

He would be chewing out Helios at the office, and Elisa, dressed in her typical garb but with a New Olympian badge walked in and out of offices, only the background. When he tried to talk to her, asking why she was there and did she get the reports done, he spoke, but heard no words and her responses were seen if unheard. Goliath would be seen pushing two faceless criminals down the hallway. Taurus would wake up again.

He would be at Rachel's apartment, minus Rachel, sitting on the couch trying to watch television, and the screen would not turn on, but he would try to watch, and continually be bothered by knocking at the door, and whenever he opened the door, he would see nothing more than the empty halls of his apartment or hear a gun shot outside. He would hear a voice complaining about the gunshot at the door or from the broken TV screen. He would shout at the TV how annoying it was getting. He would wake up again.

Taurus finally and fully woke up pass lunchtime. The wounded shoulder throbbed after supporting almost twelve hours of his full body weight. He opened his fridge for something to eat, at least to settle his mind and stomach. The refrigerator contained only bottles of water and juice, dried up pomegranate, and cartons of takeout. Taurus could not recall the last time he ordered takeout or had takeout—it had to be when Rachel ordered pizza—and the takeout had to be fairly recent. Like most other things in his apartment, his fridge was kept in order.

He flipped open one container. The take out was moussaka, an eggplant casserole. There was nothing more than the slices of eggplant left, as if someone had stripped away the sauce and filling and ate that. Taurus took the container and popped a few cold slices in his mouth, figuring he liked eggplant enough and that it absorbed most of the flavor of the sauce.

Taurus was only awake for a few more hours and fell asleep with the screen on, muted but flashing. He lay on his stomach and slept with dreams that he could not recall when he woke, up but was left with just a feeling. Taurus woke up to the smell of something decomposing. Dozily he bumbled around the room before finally finding the culprit, an egg custard tossed behind the couch. He did not how he failed to notice the grease mark on the wall.

After moving his couch out of the way, Taurus cleaned up the mess and sprayed the now yellowish spot on his beige carpet with deodorizer. While moving the couch back, he found a missing tin of metal polish. He glanced up at his helmet, sitting up on the top shelf of his bookcase on its holder. It's been a while since he's polished it.

He took the helmet down from the shelf, a rag from under the cupboards and began to polish his helmet. Taurus worked over every groove and cranny in the helmet then cleaned off the polish. The helmet shined like a new minted silver coin. Taurus turned it over to look on the inside. The reflective outside of the helmet reflected crumbs on the carpet.

Taurus snorted the looked around his living room. He pulled the helmet on over his head, reveling in the weight of it. From a tiny closet, he removed his vacuum and a small wavecatcher he thought he discarded years ago in favor of his security one. He flicked on the radio, surprised to see that it still worked, and heavy music filled with beats and deep sultry horns poured from the speakers (New Olympian version of Jazz). Taurus set the wavecatcher on his coffee table and set to vacuuming his carpet, still wearing the helmet so that he could only focus on cleaning the carpet.

At some point, Calypso came into the room, the Bambi book under her arm, gently pushed open the door. She could hear the vacuum cleaner running and hushed by it, older music. Cautiously she entered the room. Taurus was completely involved with his cleaning. For moment, Calypso thought Taurus was wearing head phones, but a turn of his head; she saw it was his helmet. She took in the scene, then set the book on the table and walked out.

&&&

_Five days later at Calypso's apartment, _

"I thought law enforcers were not allowed to wear capes," Calypso said, her arm wound around his forearm.

"We are not, this is purely ornamental," Taurus stated. "And let go of my arm."

"And how is Boreas supposed to know you brought a date?" Calypso asked. Along with the blue dress, Calypso now sported a shimmering, almost transparent scarf, which wove over one narrow arm, across her back, and wove over the other arm. As a gift, Taurus gave Calypso a moon orchid bangle to wear on her other wrist, since he felt too ridiculous walking down the street with a bouquet of flowers, at least the bangle could easily be hidden from the eyes of curious and nosy passersby. As well he felt, a bouquet of flowers was too presuming, which was not what he was looking for when buying a gift for Calypso. He knew Calypso would take the flowers as too presumptuous.

Calypso squealed when Taurus told her he had a gift for her, then her face dropped when he handed the bangle over like a set of handcuffs and dropped it in her palm. "You're supposed to wrap it," she said dryly, but put it on and spent twenty minutes admiring it then changed her hair pins to match the bangle.

"I have a feeling you won't be leaving my side," Taurus spoke from the back of his throat.

"What?" Calypso said.

"Nothing," Taurus stated. "Come, let's go."

&&&

Guests were already arriving at the Atlas Gardens. Guests not only included the infamous house representatives, but politicians, merchants, and other officials. Guards were stationed from Security Building as well as several small copper versions of Talos, the crowd control. Talos, meanwhile, was on call.

Ekidna, house leader of the Gorgons and senator, was already there, Taurus saw her enter the marble building, her ever obedient daughter, Medusa following behind. Medusa was a sweet little thing, in comparison to her crotchety mother. Jokingly she was called "Foothill", since she always followed her craggy mother. She lacked the jagged jaw, narrow face, and narrow orange eyes of her mother. Her face was round; eyes were yellow and round, but always down turned towards the ground. She bore wings upon her back, along with her face, were gifts from her harpy father. Taurus could only feel pity for poor Medusa, only a little older than Calypso. Ekidna always towed Medusa to any meetings. If she could not take her anger out on any of the guests, she would take it out on Medusa.

Aries was behind Ekidna, and neither seemed too thrilled to be in the same vicinity of each other. Though the two never fought verbally (or physically in that matter) in any debates, there was little love lost between the two. Ekidna gossiped between the differences of Aries and Ares, his late father. There was a rift between the two since Aries became a teenager. Rifts between parents and child often happen, such as a rift between Taurus and his mother, and that easily heal up during adulthood, the Aries's rift grew wider as Ares, old at the time of Aries's birth, aged. Ares was an excellent general, as was his father before him. He was an honorable man, not prone to light heartedness, but had a soft spot and a good eye that lead to flexibility when leading the troops. Aries was too young, too brash, and too proud for his father's position, and too traditional, adhering to the old concept of what an army should be like. Ekidna jokingly called him "Aries the Lamb" because of his childish nature. He was all too eager to prove himself, and just as eager to have a good time. He was continually living his statuesque father's shadow, which left the "pretty boy" Aries a little less than affable. There was a fairly common saying on the streets, never compare Aries to his father in his face, there are much neater ways of committing suicide.

Aries's companion for the night (just for the night, Aries was as picky and jumpy as a lamb) was a young minotaur dressed in a teal tunic with matching teal armlets and yellow and teal boots. He did not wear his mouse brown mane in a Mohawk like Taurus, but let grow free, bangs spiked out, and the tips a faded blond, a common procedure of entertainers. His long hair was braided with a teal bow. Taurus recognized the shy minotaur as the gardener planting shrubbery for his landlady.

"That's Orion, the guy from the earlier internship," Calypso whispered leaning against Taurus for him to hear her and stealing that opportunity to put her arm around his bicep. She girlishly giggled. "I guessed he lucked out too."

"Huh?" Taurus said.

"Hi Chief Taurus! Hi Calypso!" a shrill voice exclaimed from the streets. Taurus winced.

"What's wrong with Taurus?" Ahka asked. The Cecropian was not dressed in his uniform, and his appearance at the party could only mean that he was invited, either as a house representative (unlikely), a politician (highly unlikely), or someone's date (doubtful…).

"Heartburn," Calypso answered straightly. "He always gets that."

"I thought you were lying when you said you were coming with Chief Taurus," Ahka stated.

"Great job both of you! You make a cute couple!" Ahka said. "Now I have to go find my sister. She's not allowed any booze."

Taurus gagged. Calypso lit up.

"Cute couple?" she beamed.

"Sister?"

&&&

"It is great to see you Taurus, you look well. Have you enjoyed your vacation?" Boreas asked Taurus.

"I have experienced many new things," Taurus answered honestly. "I did not follow the list. I just simply let the Fates choose what I did for the day and night."

"That is good," Boreas said with a smile, none the wiser. "It feels great to be alive, does it not?"

"You have no idea," Taurus answered smartly.

"And who might I ask is this fine young specimen of a nymph?" Boreas asked. Calypso was hidden behind Taurus's bulk and continually peaked over his shoulder or reached for a napkin, or asked Taurus to pass something down.

"Calypso Cestus," Taurus answered for Calypso. Calypso's cheeks turned purple.

"Really? I didn't expect you to bring such young lady to the dinner. Honestly, I expected you to either come single or with your landlady," Boreas said.

"I'm his next door neighbor!" Calypso spoke up and waved.

"Heh," Taurus said and sunk down into his seat.

"Taurus," Boreas spoke up, "I would like to introduce you to Sphinx, and she will be an observer today. She is top in her class, and a professor at the college requested that she be present at today's meeting."

"It is good to finally meet you, Chief Taurus!" a hand, pale gold in color gripped his own hand.

The sphinx girl was taller than Calypso with pale yellow skin and rich yellow hair, crowned by a pair of cattish ears. White wings striped at the pin feathers in brown stuck out of her back, just at the shoulder blades. A leonine tail swished behind her. She smiled boldly taking the chief's hand. She was younger than Calypso, but definitely appeared older. As Sphinx turned orange in the cheeks, Taurus could imagine his date behind him turning even purpler. Sphinx's blushing was obviously from the excitement and anticipation from meeting the Chief of Security, and undoubtedly her interest in Taurus were far different than those of most females he had come into contact with.

Sphinxes were well known for and quite proud of their mental prowess, in fact so proud that many females bore the surname of their famous ancestor. They had a natural hunger for history, for facts, for anything educational and intellectual. It was said that Sphinx perched upon the rocks to test the humans with a riddle. She wanted to see just how intelligent these humans were. She sat on the stone so long and became so angry, that the flesh of the humans she killed after lashing out in anger at their own stupidity became her meals. She grew insane, whether it was from human flesh or the stupidity of the humans. It was commonly held that she had to have been insane before even thinking of touching human flesh.

"The feeling is mutual Miss…"

"Just call me Sphinx," she said, "I am not a teacher Chief Taurus; you do not need to call me by Miss."

"All right, Sphinx," Taurus stated.

Sphinx sat down on the other side of Taurus, between him and Boreas, a note pad resting on her lap.

"Excuse me, Chief Taurus," Sphinx spoke up, I have some questions about your meeting with the human, Elisa Maza," Sphinx said, tapping her pencil on the table.

Taurus's ears flicked. "Is this the reason you are present tonight?"

"No," Sphinx said, "but I still have a few questions for you, for a report."

"Miss Sphinx, could it wait?" Taurus asked.

"It could, but would you like it answer just a few questions before the dinner start. Okay, first one, Miss Elisa Maza, what was her personality like? Height? Weight if you can guess? Smell, did she have any particular smell…other than stinky," Sphinx spoke up. "What were you expectations of humans?"

"Miss Elisa Maza is honorable, and has proven to be an exception to our beliefs in humanity," Taurus stated.

"And do you feel about humans now?"

Taurus paused, and picked up a cup. "And what do you expect me to answer with that? What do you feel about humans?"

"They're interesting," Sphinx said. "Interesting specimens. I want to know more about them."

"Didn't you get to see Elisa?" Taurus asked.

"I was asleep that night," Sphinx answered sadly. "Everyone in my household disappeared and by the time I found out from someone where everyone was, it was too late. I just managed to get a glimpse of the skiff as it left the island."

"Shame," Taurus stated, the quieted, realizing the choking pressure within the dining hall. Calypso was not the only one tapping her fingers on the table.

There was obvious tension in the dining hall. Ekidna belittled her daughter. Polaris glared at the new Cecrops House leader seated one table away. The multiple houses of nymphs, chattered, much to the annoyance of any surrounding houses. Taurus's great grandmother, Laurel, was the leader of House Dryad, she was the only quiet nymph, a silent vigil willow tree among a mess of chattering poplars, streams, lakes, oceans, and flowers. Laurel and Taurus never exchanged words, not because of dislike, but because the two shared very much in common, especially dispositions. There was silent admiration, like the mountain to the valley. Taurus nodded at Laurel, and Laurel nodded in return. Neither was the huggy type.

The new house leader was a lizardwoman looking Cecropian, Ishtar was her name, and despite being the youngest and newest addition, she fit in quite comfortably. Ishtar looked like a gold lizard with spiky white-silver hair held up in a bun, allowing a few fins to fall down her long neck. Thick tan patches started up the tip of her nose, ran between her eyes, down and her neck and to the tip of her lengthy tail. She wore a lavender gown, lengthy, covering her paws, but cut low in front, shoulders cut out, and a slit on her left side up to her waist. She seemed very unconcerned with Polaris's glares, and according to pre-dinner talk, Polaris had attempted several times to coerce Ishtar of her position, and failed miserably. He offered her houses, possibilities as a mistress or even a wife, money, and land before his letters became more belligerent. She never answered a single one. Finally Polaris came to the House with several centaur guards in hopes of intimidating the position from her. She walked down the center steps with her hair wrapped in a towel, wearing a short bathrobe, and carrying a small white lap dog in her arms. She cocked her eyebrow at the group standing at her doorway then walked passed them without even giving a second glance and continued with her bath.

Tonight was her first meeting and already she made enemies and allies among the congress.

Polaris said more than his share of barbs to his tablemates about Ishtar, who occasionally cocked an _oh-please_ eyebrow when his comments became very crude.

"So when are we beginning, Boreas?" Ekidna screeched.

"Soon," Boreas answered, "a few guests have yet to arrive."

An eagle scream cut through the night sky like a hot knife through butter. Heads turned to the large massive windows carved and opened at the top of the dining hall.

"You didn't invite the gargoyles did you?" Ekidna hissed.

Boreas's wife, a harpy named Oreithyia, lowered her head and shook it, knowing what was going to happen. His two sons, Zetes and Calais, favoring their father in appearance but mother in size, smiled viciously, taking pleasure in knowing ahead time of the gargoyles' invitation and savoring the reaction of the diners after months of anticipation on their reaction. Boreas tapped his staff on the ground.

"They are just as welcomed to any house meeting as you are Ekidna. They are as part of this community as any other New Olympian. They traveled with us, they stay with us," Boreas stated, a deathly tone to his voice.

"They're monsters! The gargoyles are crude and vicious, they refuse our modern technology. They don't belong here! They'll stink up the place and they have the eating habits are of beasts," Polaris exclaimed, holding a white paw up.

"Look who's calling the briki black," Ishtar sputtered over her chalice of red wine. The nymphs nearby giggled like a choir of song birds.

The first gargoyle landed in a window, a female with coral colored skin. Her black hair was layered between bands of woven gold, a thick black curl hung on each cheek. Her were ibex style, ridged and curving back. She wore a simple white toga with a gold braided belt. A similar looking male, most likely her brother, landed in a nearby window. Both had coral colored skin, black hair, long noses, and chiseled chins, though the female had two tiny horns on each eyebrow and the male had claws on his wings. A third gargoyle, another female, this one the color of clay, her shorter, thinner brown hair was in a traditional braided bun. A young male, with short, curly gold hair pierced with tiny horns, and feathery wings landed near the clay colored female. Another male, the shade of a robin's egg and even more imposing than the first male, took up the entire window. This gargoyle sport two tiny horns on his temple and had forked tail that appeared to be almost two separate tails. The final gargoyle, another female, a dark almost night blue with her forest green hair cut in an Egyptian style, perched in another window. Black shadows dashing from building to building were the other clan members, keeping watch and quite possibly the peace later on.

The coral twins landed first and clasped their wings. The others followed suit. The only sound in the dining hall was their claws on the marble tiling.

"Attica and Atticus, it is great that you have made it to our meeting," Boreas said as he greeted them.

"For some of us maybe," Atticus stated from the corner of his mouth to Boreas. To the dinner guests, he boomed "I am Atticus of the Mount Thanatos. This is my sister and second in command, Attica. The three other members of my clan are Vespa, Icarus, Typhoon, and Pandora respectively. We mean you no harm, and no troubles, and we wish you the same with us. We wish nothing more than to eat our meals, converse, and be on our way before daybreak."

Atticus walked to his table, set up on the other side of Boreas. Synchronized, the others sat down beside him, their wings clasp around their necks. It was silent except for the hushed whispers from the nymphs.

Ekidna banged her fist onto the table. "Now that _everyone_ is here can you tell us why you called a meeting of the houses?"

Boreas clasped his hands. "It has been a while since we have had a meeting, I felt it was appropriate to get us all back together again and strengthen bonds that have been stressed when Elisa Maza…"

Boos, hisses, and jeers rose from the houses. Boreas's eyes glowed. The air began to crackle, the room silenced.

Boreas continued, "washed up on our shore. I felt it was appropriate for us to have a discussion tonight over humanity."

"You're joking? That's why you called us here tonight," Ekidna screeched, sounding so terrible that even the harpies winced. Medusa sunk lower into her seat, "to discuss those monkeys?"

"Ekidna, wait to speak your turn," Boreas ordred. Growls erupted, eyes flashed. "Elisa's landing on our island has proven to be anything but a prophecy. I think it is time that we, the New Olympians, made contact with the outside world."

"Prophecy?" Polaris snarled. "She showed up on a skiff with _gargoyles!_ It is just plan dumb luck that she managed to find us, and you let her go. On a skiff, might I add, maybe this prophecy of yours was merely saying that the humans have not evolved enough yet to be even at the level of some of our less developed members. Maybe it was saying we are still safe and humans are still the ignorant bastards they were thousands of years ago."

"Obviously someone does not read," Rion spoke up. "Reports say that the humans have made vast improvements with their technology in the past decade. And this Elisa Maza managed to get passed our barrier on a wooden skiff. Maybe our technology is not as impressive as you think it is Polaris."

"Quiet hedonist," Polaris exclaimed, "everyone knows that you can make reports say anything you want."

"Much like you say that the old text say women should be slaves of the household, eh Polaris?" Ishtar said with a cocky grin.

"You be quiet, and what cheap whore did you steal that dress from by the way?" Polaris snarled, his skin burning red under white fur.

Ishtar swished the wine around in her chalice. "My name is Ishtar of House Cecrops, and it was stolen from your mother."

"My mother was twice the woman you are," Polaris exclaimed.

"I know, I made a matching bathrobe and bed sheets from her gown too," Ishtar smoothly answered.

Polaris pointed to Ishtar. "See! This is what happened when you let ignorant fools attend the meeting. Lower classes, fools, harlots, and halfwits are in no position to be present here. You need intelligent, decent people. Not fools like this!"

He gestured to Orion and Ishtar. At that the titan Aries stood up, teeth gritting and flames in his eyes. He leaned over the table.

"I am going to dig a grave for you Polaris before you can even dig deep enough of one for your own!" Aries snarled.

"Both you two, sit down!" Boreas exclaimed. He slammed his staff on the ground; lightning began to race around it.

The two sat down. Aries glared at Polaris, and Polaris met his gaze with an icy stare. Ishtar drank more wine.

"We are facing a serious dilemma here. We all know that we cannot stay here forever," Boreas said. "There will be a point in the future where the New Olympians must be part of the rest of the world. This is nothing more than an island, who knows what all is out there."

"Who wants to know?" someone spoke up.

"Why can't we just hold it off?" Ekidna hissed. "It's not like because of one measly human gets stranded on our island do we suddenly have to rush out and see the rest of them. What is wrong with the way we are living now? There are no problems currently or I can see other that with a few people. Our island is fine; it is safe, like it has been for thousands of years."

"Thousands of years is a long time to be stuck on an island Ekidna," Rion spoke up. "Don't you think after a while, being on a land so small makes the mind enclosed and small as well? We're losing valuable opportunities staying here."

"Opportunities? What about lives?" Ekidna exclaimed. "What makes you think that the humans are not going to slaughter us like they did thousands of years ago?"

There was an uproar of approval.

"Because it was thousands of years ago," Rion answered. "Things change."

"And sometimes, things don't change," Ekidna hissed back.

"You're still the crotchety old hag you were when my mother was a baby," Ishtar snickered lightly. A few heard her and agreed with giggles.

"We have to find out some how; we can't stay on here forever!"

"It's been done for thousands of years, we can survive," Ekidna hissed.

"What? And let our society rot away into nothing? We can't live like this anymore, cooped up and ignorant! It's getting stale here, the waters around us, they're changing. If we don't prepare to meet humans, than what's going to happen to us? Something is going to crash down on us, and we'll be completely unprepared and pay the price that's what," Rion exclaimed. "And you're going to blame the humans for that like you've done for thousands of years for all your little problems, when it was your own fault."

"Rion, maybe it is for the better," Aries said. "A time will come for us to meet the humans, but now, not this time. It's too early, too many new members of a houses and leaders, unprepared for the world. We need time, and that time is not now."

"I agree with Aries," Medusa peeped.

"Quiet!" Ekinda hissed. "The gods left this island for us, and we're staying here. This is our sanctuary, out there isn't!"

"I must agree with Ekidna on this matter," Kazicus of House Minotaurus spoke up. He scratched at his beard.

Zeles slammed his hands on the table, startling everyone, even Boreas.

"FATHER! How can you listen to these fools talk? That one wants to hide under a rock, that wants the fates to decided what happens to us, and that one wants to befriend them! Why did the gods lead us to this island? Why might I ask? It wasn't to keep us here as a sanctuary. It was to save us and allow us to become stronger, stronger than them. Elisa's landing on our island was a message, it's our time, and it's time for the New Olympians to retake the world. We're the gods now, not them. Did you see her, that human? She can't do anything!"

Rion snarled. Ekidna hissed. Taurus gripped at the tablecloth.

"Who are you calling the fool, Zeles? Your belief is even more suicidal than his belief to befriend them," Ekidna said.

"It's better than hiding under a rock like a snake," Zeles exclaimed.

"Boreas put your son in his place!" Ekidna exclaimed.

"Zeles, be seated and let the house members speak," Boreas ordered. "Your constructive criticism is not wanted or needed currently."

"I will say I believe that it is best that we meet with these humans," Ishtar spoke up. Next responding to Polaris's remarks, Ishtar was quiet. No one even knew her position on humanity, though it was most likely…apathetic.

"What?" Polaris roared. "See? She is a fool!"

"Not a fool," Ishtar answered. "Anyone who is willing to agree with you is a fool. I am not doing this out of love for humanity. I'm just doing this because you're an ass and I want to live the next centaury of my life. I don't want to spend it dead."

"Why on earth would they let such a shallow bink like you into office is beyond me," Polaris growled.

"Because you're a jackass, and he's a dumbass," Ishtar exclaimed pointing her thumb behind, as Ahka finally entered the scene from the lavatory.

"Hmm?" Ahka perked up.

Boreas turned to the gargoyles. "I invited you for your take on this, what are your thoughts on this situation? As members of our congress your notions are just as important as theirs."

Atticus set his hands on the table. "It is all inevitable. Ignorance is no excuse for inevitability. If we are anything like the gods, we would face and meet with humanity much like the gods did thousands of years."

There was a roar, from the gargoyles' side. Typhoon smashed his blue fist down the table, his claws ripping the cloth. "Inevitability, Atticus? We can avoid these people on this island for years, and we can avoid humans for many years to come. We can survive just find without consorting with these people, and we'll do just fine without meeting with humans. How can you support this nonsense, Atticus? You know what is inevitable, and that is us getting the short end of the stick and becoming alienated as usual."

"Typhoon, my love, this may be an opportunity for us to truly find our home," Attica cooed softly, "our place."

"Our place? A home of our own? Wasn't that what we were offered years ago and instead we are surviving on the fringes of New Olympian society?" Typhoon exclaimed, sarcastically. "And what are we to get now? What is the offer this humanity and this society have for us? Tell me Boreas?"

"Our exile from New Olympus was purely our ancestors own decision, Typhoo," Atticus stated, "and we stick to that decision. Members of our clan have the choice to leave, and none have left so far. We are creatures of instinct after all. Our ancestors knew that, and the New Olympian upperclass know that, and they condone it. Though many people admire us for our independence, just not the upperclass. That independence is why we left and we chose to remain our own people. We are New Olympian gargoyles, just not New Olympians."

The dining hall became a storm of growls, jeers, hisses, boos, and scratching nails upon tables. Typhoon's eyes flashed white, and Atticus remained as unmoved as a statue.

"And you gargoyles wonder why everyone treats you differently!" Polaris exclaimed. "You're nothing more than freaks; you're only alive half the time anyway. As far as I am concerned you are dead to us!"

"A gargoyle technically enters a hibernation state during the day in which the body turns into a biological material resembling stone. This 'living stone' material absorbs sunlight and energy through photosynthesis, much like the Saurians on this island do. Gargoyles have much more in common with Saurians than they do with rocks, Polaris," a male sphinx spoke up from his table. The sphinxes desire for knowledge had nothing on the sphinx's, Marcus, comment. He simply detested Polaris, but loved to snub him. Polaris snarled.

Several of the gargoyles eyes flashed red and white. Atticus remained unmoved.

"The gargoyles are a welcomed part of our society. Like many of us, they have gifts bestowed upon them. The fact that you alienate them for their gift is only evidence of your own jealousy, that goes for all present here," Taurus stated dryly.

"We haven't heard much from you today Taurus," Kazicus, the black and white bull, of House Minotaurus stated with a smirk. He and Asterius were rivals in all sense. Asterius took all in stride with good humor, much to Kazicus's chagrin. With Asterius's passing, Kazicus turned his attention to Asterius's always in less than good humor son. The two rarely met, so Kazicus would save up months of barbs for the house meetings. "I expected you to say something about that human, since you two did team up."

"In a time of dire need, Elisa Maza has lived passed our expectations of humans to prove herself in the line of duty and save our island from a disaster. I suppose you too Kazicus would have done the same in a similar situation, but is your biasness too consuming to even help out our beloved New Olympus?" Taurus responded snidely. He never took Kazicus's barbs with a smile as his father did.

"And has this changed your opinion of humanity, Chief Taurus?" Orion spoke up.

"In a time of need, I did not focus on the fact that Elisa was human, that was a little detail that I overlooked," Taurus answered. "I do not know how I feel about humanity. Her conduct has raised some questions in my mind."

He crossed his hands.

"So what, you're a human hugger now?" Ekidna hissed.

"Just because I answered I do know what I feel about humans does not make me a human sympathizer. You can't make grey black, Ekidna," Taurus stated, rolling his eyes.

"And what's that suppose to mean?" Ekidna asked.

"I'm in a neutral area, I'm not standing in one place or another, don't immediately put me in the black because I'm not standing on your white," Taurus hissed.

There were gasps from Taurus's response. No one has ever spoken to Ekidna like that or in that tone. Most answered to her hisses with sharp remarks made at her expense. No one has ever snapped at her in a well thought out logical answer. And Taurus has never spoke in that tone before.

"Are you suggesting that you are starting to doubt your beliefs Taurus?" someone asked.

"No, I'm not. I still believe the Minotaur was mistreated by humans. However, if I gained nothing or allowed myself to gain nothing from this experience would make me…bullheaded, perhaps?" Taurus answered. "It was an incident that you could not go through without thinking. I will not say that my views have changed, but I can think more logically now. Call it intelligent predisposition."

"Taurus, you have been to the human lands to capture Proteus, what can you say about them?" a centaur asked.

"I was only there briefly. The city was dirty, smelly, and dangerous. There is constant noise and light," Taurus answered. "I could hear people fighting in every alleyway, in every house. But, there are more lands than the land I've been to. So not all human lands might be like this…New York City."

There were discussions among the delegates, whispered hushes occasionally cut through by harsh growls.

"And there are other gargoyles, here, correct? You met Elisa and the other clan there," Atticus asked.

"Yes," Taurus answered. "This New York City is where they call their home, it was their choice to live there and protect it. Elisa Maza does the same for the city."

"But it's dirty and dangerous, they must not be making much of a change," a nymph, an oceanid spoke up. She looked very much Calypso, albeit she was a vibrant blue-green color and hair decked with coral spikes.

"The city is huge," Taurus answered, "and I could see the lights from many other big cities as I travel searching for Proteus. Can you only imagine how many humans are living there?"

People gasp. Sphinx aggressively wrote down all that Taurus had said. She had over three notebook pages filled.

"See, we can't do this! There are too many dangerous humans out there," a satyr exclaimed.

"Maybe that's the reason we have to go," Rion said. "It's only a matter of time before another human or humans find us and they may not be as friendly as Elisa. We have to make our presence known to the outside world. Diplomats should be sent there as soon as possible and set up the terms."

"What? And be swarmed by them?" a cyclops boomed. "You'll be sticking your finger in an ants' nest if you do that."

"You can crush ants, we can crush them!" Zeles exclaimed.

"Idiots! Just avoid them, and then we don't have to worry about getting bit!" Ekidna exclaimed.

Someone shouted to Ekidna to shut her snake trap. Another person called Orion a lower class dumbass. Aries pulled his sword from its holster and the air began to smell of ozone. The nymphs prattled; Laurel remained unmoved in the chaos. Polaris verbally dueled with Ishtar, her responses falling on deaf earsover the clatter, ultimately ending with her giving him the finger to get her point across. Over the chaos, Kazicus bellowed. The harpies screeched and their wings flapped loudly. Calypso sunk down into her seat, holding her placemat up like a shield. Typhoon's chest rumbled and his eyes burned like magnesium. Pandora appeared plain terrified, Icarus looked on in interest, Vespa in disgust, and Atticus and Attica looked bored, as if they fully prophesized such.

Voices were raised and fists were raised.

Boreas sighed in relief as he heard the clatter in the kitchen of meals placed on carts and the hustle of waiters. The doors pushed opened. The arguments died down.

Boreas cleared his throat. "Let the feast begin!"

Dishes were brought to the tables and plates were set out in front in front of guests. Larger trays of fruit, desserts, casseroles, and salads were set on banquet tables adorn with flowers and a large (and dripping) statue of an oceanid riding upon the back of a dolphin.

"Thank Zeus for that," Taurus said to himself. "It's better when people put stuff in their mouth then when stuff comes out of it."

The dinner was calm, the eye of the storm; the silent briefness before the storm strikes again. There were growls people tucked into their meals. The gargoyles were perhaps the quietest of the diners. They neatly cut their fish into chunks and ate those neatly with their hands, and used their claws to peel the fruit (which was the only sweets they took, they avoided all else).

Calypso made sure to visit the sweet table and try every confection. She would come back with a plate (her plate of fish, fennel bulbs, and rice half finished) of sweets to sample. She made sure to grab double of what she liked…for Taurus, and continually offered him dessert as he tried to eat his dinner. Calypso also made sure to stack the empty dessert plates near Taurus.

On her fourth visit to the table, Calypso was filling her plate with pine nut nougat and current pastries when Polaris elbowed her into the table, sending her plate of pastries into the dripping pool of water from the ice statue. The pastries immediately turned to mush. Oh what a cruel, ironic world for a nymph, her desserts to become soggy in her element.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, angered at her pastries, never mind the imprint of the table edge in her stomach.

"Watch it you bink," he snarled at her.

Calypso glared as at the lumbering white behemoth. Around her feet, water pooled from the statue, soaking her new shoes, and then she was struck with inspiration (and icy cold vengeance). Hiding behind the statue after looking around (there was only Medusa looking at pies, and Calypso did not view her as much of a threat), Calypso began to focus her powers on the pool of water. Like a snake it slid across the floor, unnoticeably weaving between legs before settling right before Polaris as he walked, forming the very same pool that was once under the dessert table.

Polaris went down like a pile of bricks. He fell to his knees and right in front on Ishtar. Ishtar was sitting sideways on her chair. She was uconcerned, but set down her wine glass for the first time that night.

"Excuse me Polaris, but is that a chestnut down there?" she asked, pointing between his knees.

"What are you talking about, you simpleton?" he snarled just Ishtar brought her foot into his crotch. Polaris collapsed face down onto the table, the single yellow horn in the center of his forehead, tearing the linen tablecloth. Ishtar turned back into her seat.

"I guess it was a chestnut," she said nonchalantly.

At this point, Polaris came to and flipped the entire table with a loud roar. Dishes, wine, and food crashed to the food. The cecropians and the sphinxes sitting at the table were silent. Ahka still held both his silverware in his hands. The dining hall fell silent. Knives and forks scratched at plates.

"You little sociopath!" Polaris roared and slammed his massive had down on the seat where Ishtar sat only seconds ago. Ishtar kicked Polaris hard in the forearm, causing the behemoth to spin around. Polaris caught Ishtar by her tail and spun her around.

Ahka stood up on his chair and launched himself at Polaris and landed on his back, his arms wrapped around his neck. He had his one hand on Polaris's horn, tugging on it and twisting his head. "GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY SISTER!"

All Hades broke loose at that point.

A man in the back, his eyes as red as the sun, screamed, "ATTACK!"

Someone hit Ekidna smack in the face with a pie. A harpy slapped Rion across the face, and Aries leapt over his table to join in the fray. One of the nereids had something against a harpy that stole her lover and grabbed the offending harpy by her pinfeathers and proceeded to pull several out in the process. Most of the other nymphs scampered out the way, diving behind pillars, peeking from hiding places frightened, or cheering from the distance. A chimera, who was leaping to attack the sphinx leader Marcus, was pulled down to the ground in a fury of roots from Laurel's arsenal. Rion slugged out a satyr attempting to crack Aries across the head with a platter. Ekidna wrapped her tail around his ankle and pulled the minotaur to the ground with a thump.

Food, knives, plates, and chunks of the ice statue were thrown across the room. Taurus flipped over his table as a barrier From his holster, he pulled his bolo gun. Calypso appeared beside him, a silver tray filled with fruit. She held an orange in her hand like a stick ball player and flung it out into the battle zone, where immediately it turned to juice, but not before smacking someone in the back of the head. Sphinx was curled in a ball, protecting her notes and papers from the messy arsenal and flying bodies.

Security guards, heavy duty security guards such as shape shifters, cyclopses, titans, and the like; those who can take physical abuse and fight back and subdue a crowd quickly rushed into the room. Taurus felt his heart skip a beat.

"You stay here," Taurus ordered to Calypso and Sphinx. "It's too dangerous."

Ahka flew over the table and hit the wall.

"You too," Taurus told the dazed cecropian.

Taurus leapt over the table into the chaos. Boreas attempted to control the crowd, but he was continually jostled by dueling houses and guests scampering away in fear. Ishtar kicked Polaris in the jaw, catching him with the heel of her shoe, and freeing herself from his grasp. Holding on his bloody lip, Polaris was tripped as Ishtar took his feet out from under him with one swoop.

Taurus shot a net, taking down a hippogriff as she pulled on the hair of faun. A lash of a root captured a little fairy girl who was buzzing around the head of Laurel. Two griffins, battled with Typhoon in the air. Chandeliers and chunks of ceiling tile rained down on the dining hall. Taurus took one griffin down, Laurel pulled Typhoon down, his eyes flashing white as she subdued him in a net of roots and vines. Atticus grabbed the other griffin by his tail, tackling him. He pressed him into the tiles, driving an elbow into the back of the head, holding him down.

"I got this one Chief Taurus!" Atticus shouted. "Take care of the rest!"

"Thank you," Taurus said, checking the bonds on the griffin.

Attica pulled a saurian to the ground, holding him in a choke hold. He thrashed violent, but the gargoyle persevered. Taurus shot at the legs of a centaur wrestling with a Cyclops security guard. The centaur's legs tangled and he toppled to the ground. A shape shifter in the form of a large octopus monster wrapped his tentacles around offending members.

A female security strode into the center of battle zone. She wore the similar security outfit much like Taurus, but also sported the larger badge of a peace keeper, meaning she calmed people down in fights, not fought them. The security was much taller than a nymph with the wings of a harpy. Scales dotted her yellow skin and her hair look very much like vivacious green seaweed. She could only be one thing, appearing like the cross between a harpy and a nymph. Looks like Boreas called in the heavy ammunition for this party.

The siren raised her hand, eyes flashing green and screeched bloody murder. Taurus covered his ears, shoving his thick fingers as deep as possible.

Glasses shattered. Lights shook. Guests fell to the floor, clutching their heads, screaming in pain. The Security guards were safe from siren's song. The communicators in their ears filtered the song, while completely subduing the unruly party guests. Taurus's knees buckled in, while the titan he attempted to control rolled over.

The siren stopped when everyone not dressed in maroon and red was lying on the floor.

"Get everyone out of here! As soon as possible!" Boreas ordered, red faced. "I do not want any more fights with in this building. Call the cleaning staff now! I do not want a speck of this disaster left over by tomorrow morning!"

The gargoyles, dragging Typhoon out in a root and vine cocoon, were the first to leave. Atticus and Attica clasped hands with Boreas, the others could not, being weighed down with Typhoon.

"It was a memorable night," Attica stated to Boreas. "I am sorry for my mate's behavior. He is a fool."

"I am sorry for the behavior of the guests tonight. I feel that they instigated his reaction," Boreas said.

"Typhoon must learn to control himself, or he becomes no better than them," Attica answered.

Taurus shook hands with the two as well. "You are worthy fighters. Have you considered the night shift at the Security Headquarters?"

Atticus laughed. "No thanks, Chief Taurus. We prefer our simple life over this…insanity."

"I can agree with you, but don't you get bored?" Taurus asked.

"This was enough fun for us tonight," Attica answered. "Come, let us return to the mountain."

The gargoyles flew away into the night.

Ekidna, still covered in pie, slithered pass them. Medusa, a distance behind her, slowly slithered pass, her face towards the ground and arms crossed.

"Hey, Medusa!" Calypso exclaimed at the gorgon. The gorgon looked up. Calypso gave her the thumbs up then mouthed, "Great aim!"

Medusa smiled.

Ishtar supported Ahka as she led him out of the dining hall into an awaiting hover craft. War torn guests left one by one with their dates. Some went to their vehicles, others to awaiting ambulances, some into security hovercrafts to be taken away for the night. Polaris was held back until Isthar was a good distance away, though she took her sweet time getting a good distance away.

Laurel made sure to clasp arms, then hug, her great grandson.

"I am proud of you," she said. "Even off duty, you fight like a true champion!"

"I inherited it all from you," Taurus responded, blushing.

"You need to come visit me more often, you little foolish calf!" she said.

Orion stormed passed moments later, with Aries trailing behind.

"Rion! Songbird! Get back here, now!"

"I'm sorry, Aries, I can't," Orion responded as he kept walking. "I don't think it will work out. Let it end sweet before it ends sour."

"Rion!" Aries cried out and chased after him.

Sphinx was the last to leave. Irritated, she shook her notebook, soggy with water. She growled like a lion.

"My notes!" she grumbled. "Soaking wet! Just my luck!"

Sphinx pawed off into the darkness, grumbling.

"What a night," Taurus mumbled.

"In deed, one of our better nights," Boreas stated. "There will be paperwork tomorrow, Taurus, plenty of it that needs filled out. I suppose you would be interested in filling those to get you back into pace," Boreas said.

"Actually, Boreas, I am not," Taurus answered. "I finished the paperwork that was sent to me, and that is all I wish to do. You know I hate paperwork, especially paperwork for this."

"In deed, Taurus," Boreas answered. "A few of us will be returning to my home to have an after House Meeting party, would you and your date be interested in attending?"

"No thanks," Taurus said. "I plan on returning home and sleeping for the night. Tonight just took it all out of me. My head is still aching from the siren's song. You could have told me earlier, I would have brought ear plugs," Taurus answered.

Boreas smiled in good humor. "Well you have a good night then, Chief Taurus."

"You too Boreas," Taurus answered. "Let's go Calypso."

"Wow, what a night!" Calypso exclaimed as they boarded his hovercraft. "Are they always that nasty?"

"Normally the fighting starts earlier," Taurus stated. "I do not think there will be another house meeting for a while. I have a feeling that the hard feelings between Polaris and Ishtar will not fade anytime soon."

"That Polaris is a jerk," Calypso stated.

"You know by tripping him, you instigated the fight," Taurus responded as the hovercraft rose into the sky.

"You saw?"

"I was guessing," Taurus said. "And now I know."

"You're mad?" Calypso said.

"It happens, fights happen every time. It was better than if Polaris finally lashed out at Isthar. You did a good job for you first house meeting," Taurus said.

"Thanks," Calypso answered

"Don't do it again."

&&&

Taurus walked Calypso to her apartment, spoke with her the better part of an hour, mostly reminiscing on past house meetings. Finally Calypso grew bored, and Taurus left to his own apartment.

In the sanctity of his dark apartment, Taurus propped his feet up on the coffee table. Achelous moved with in his tank, trying to spot his master in the darkness. The hallway occasionally echoed with the footsteps of other residents. Closing his eyes, Taurus let his body drift off. He attempted to kick his boots off, kicking the Bambi book off.

The thump woke him from his stupor. Taurus picked the book off the floor.

Taurus managed a smile at the ridiculous sight of the cartoon deer staring the butterfly on its tail. He was not going to read it, so technically, he was finished with it. He should return it to her, soon.

Does he really want to return to the city?

Images of the dinner flashed across his eyes. Insults were traded endlessly, fists were thrown, shouting, screaming, and petty battles.

"The Great New Olympians, eh, Achelous?" Taurus spoke to his fish. "Do you think we hate the humans because they remind us of ourselves? Are we truly better or are they truly better. Yes, I know, I'll feed you. Take your time to answer."

Taurus sprinkled flakes on the top of the water. "Even in the dark, you can find what you want. But in the light, we cannot find what we want. Life is simple for you, too simple sometimes. Maybe I should get you a roommate that would keep you quiet and wipe that smug look off your face. Have you deal with people for once, compete with people, instead of having them just give you something and clean up after you."

"I'm talking to a fish," Taurus stated to himself, tapping on the lid, with one finger, holding the book in his other hand. "Sometimes that is the only intelligent person to talk to around here."

&&&

Rachel sat on her counter, wrapping the long springy cord of the telephone around her finger. It was a long day, school was over, finally, and she managed to receive a 3.0 overall, despite all her dread, but she had to keep, finals were barely a week away. She felt a hundred pounds lighter, she felt like a rubber band that finally was slackened after being pulled to its fullest extent for half a year. She felt like a college student on summer break!

She listened to the ring tone, waiting, waiting. Maybe she called too late at night. She chewed on her fingernail. It was a long a day at the bookstore, her first nine and a half hour shift since last summer. Her feet hurt, her mind was reeling, and her fingers were chalky and dry from stocking books all morning and handling sticky money all afternoon. Rachel came home exhausted, physically for once, not mentally. The alley still smelt like chlorine from Mrs. Brigleston's pool. After discovering a mysterious grey "mold" in the filters, she had the pool pumped and sprayed down twice. Rachel showered to clean the gunk of work off and to refresh her nostrils. Instead of fully dressing, she threw on an old blue button up shirt, two sizes too big, but comfortable and a pair of socks. Now she wished she had not spent that half an hour divulgence of a shower. Her grandfather was most likely in bed.

It has been a busy week. Two days after Taurus left, Deanna banged on her door in the middle of night. Deanna had caught her DJ boyfriend with two other women in a bathroom stall at the night club. She proceeded to kick in the door and kick her boyfriend's ass to the "curb", literally. Rachel knew how much Deanna loved those bright yellow stilettos. It was a real shame that they were currently flats. One of the heels was in the club's restroom, and the other was laying in the street, most likely crushed to splinters by the many taxis that stampeded down the roadways. She would always remember them though, looking upon the many imprints on her boyfriend's back, and he'll always be reminded of her. Deanna spent the night in Rachel's apartment hiding from the police if her boyfriend dared to call them.

"Hi, Grampa? It's me, Rachel," she gently spoke into the phone. "Happy birthday! Did you get everything you wanted?"

She sighed. "I know, I'm sorry I couldn't be there this year, the workload this year was incredible. Did you save me a piece of cake? It's in the freezer? I'll be sure to share it with you when I come home. I think that won't be until late summer."

Rachel lay back on the counter, kicking her feet. "I'm a B student. Yeah, I know, I was really surprised; I didn't think I was going to make it this year. I begin my internship in July. I think it is dealing with exotic animals; I don't know what to expect. I just hope it's not spiders. Snakes I can handle, spiders I can't."

The sliding door glided open, smoothly for the first few feet, then squealed loudly. Rachel sat up just as the curtain was parted.

"Yeep!" Rachel squealed, covering her mouth and holding the phone against her chest.

Taurus was alarmed and stepped back. Rachel was sitting red faced on the counter. She was dressed in little more than a button up shirt, a pair of undergarments, and socks. The expression was priceless. The blush ran down her pair legs, which were twisted around each other. Taurus offered her an equally shamed smile, remembering humans' 'modesty'. "I am sorry to intrude, Miss Wesley. But…"

"Just a moment, Taurus," Rachel said, gripping the phone in both hands, her knuckles turning red. Rachel sounded as if she was trying to catch her breath. She placed the phone against her ear. "Sorry about that Grampa. No. I'm fine; a friend just scared me half to death. No! No, uh-uh! I'm sorry Grampa, I have to go. No. No, stop that. Well belated happy birthday. I love you too. Bye."

Rachel hung the phone up and jumped down off of the counter. She stood stiff for a moment, as if standing at attention. The shirt spread down to her knees, making her slightly more decent, though Taurus still could not look directly look at her. Feeling appropriate, Rachel slackened.

"I am sorry to disturb you, Miss Rachel Wesley," Taurus said, looking at the floor. "I did not mean to intrude so unexpectedly, but I have forgotten to return this to you."

Taurus pulled the Bambi book out of his satchel. He finally made eye contact with her and then stated blandly. "I did not read it."

"I did it as a joke," Rachel smiled, a blush covering a blush. She took the book out of his hands. "I didn't expect you to read it. Did you just come to return the book?"

"Yes," Taurus stated. He looked around the room then face Rachel. "But if you do not mind, Miss Rachel Wesley, would it be acceptable for me to spend a few days here to get a way from it all?"

A third blush covered her face and rushed down her neck. By now, Rachel looked as if she been on a beach with no protection from the sun. "What?"

Taurus shook his head. He spat out, his tone shamed, "I am having bad luck on my vacation, and attempting to avoid lengthy paperwork."

"I wish I could do that," Rachel said with a smile. "And of course you can stay here!"

As Taurus sat on the couch, Rachel removed a pair of shorts out of her laundry basket and pulled them on. Rachel walked around the couch, fingers brushing against the top, before seating on the opposite end from Taurus.

"Is CSI on tonight?" Taurus asked picking up the remote.

"Not tonight," Rachel answered, digging her hands into her lap. Taurus set the remote back on the coffee. She bit her bottom lip. "I'm really surprised to see you."

"I could tell," Taurus stated. He put his arms behind the couch, tapping at the backing. "Who was that you were talking to? You did not have to hang up, Miss Rachel Wesley because of my entrance. I did not mean to disturb you."

"I just called my grandfather to wish him a happy birthday," Rachel said. "He sounded tired and was getting a little too curious about you. I couldn't explain to him that there was a seven foot tall minotaur in my kitchen."

_Or even harder, try to explain that the male voice on the other end of the line was not her boyfriend._

Taurus smiled. "Is this the grandfather that owns the farm?"

"Yes," Rachel answered. Taurus scratched under his chin. "I haven't been on that farm for over three years."

"You haven't been home for three years?" Taurus asked.

"Well, two years, I went home for Christmas and Hanukah my first year, but I didn't go to the farm," Rachel answered.

"You haven't seen your family in two years?" Taurus asked.

"Only in photographs they send me through the mail," Rachel answered, she looked embarrassed. "Why?"

"It is nothing Miss Wesley," Taurus said, looking at the blank TV screen. They were reflected in the TV. It was quiet.

"If you must know, Taurus, I do miss them, I miss them everyday. Every photograph they sent me is hanging on my bedroom wall," Rachel spoke up. "I have two nephews and two nieces, two who were born while I was here in school. Of those two, one I haven't seen yet. My sister's house burnt down in fall. My brother just had his first child. My little brother started high school. And I am stuck up here during all this. Sometimes I wished I could back home, but it's too hard sometimes. Things change, sometimes things change too much. The creek my friends and I used to play at was dammed and paved over for a factory. The old convenient store where I used to buy old fashion soda in a glass bottle every Sunday and the Sunday paper to read the comics closed, and the Wal-Mart just got bigger. Woods are gone, people are gone, places are gone, the feeling of where I belong, of the love for my home, it's just gone. I don't want to be there anymore sometimes, but I want to be with the people who matter most. Sometimes, I get selfish and just think of how much I hate that town…."

"I am sorry to hear that Miss Rachel Wesley," Taurus said, looking at the floor.

"It's all right, I just wanted to tell that to someone. Sorry that you were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Rachel said. Taurus watched as she wiped her nose across her knuckle.

"It is fine, Rachel," Taurus answered. He scratched his chin, deep in thought. "Would you like to set up a movie to watch?"

"I thought you hated human movies," Rachel said.

"Hate and amused by are two separate things," Taurus answered.

Rachel popped a random VHS into the VCR. Moments later the popcorn popper was roaring over the previews. Rachel sat down on the couch with the popcorn bowl between them.

"How's your shoulder?" she asked.

"Better. It had a work out recently, and is aching, but it has healed," Taurus said. "What is this movie, Miss Wesley?"

"Goonies, Mister Taurus," Rachel answered.

"Goonies?" Taurus asked. "This is not one of those corny horror movies is it, Rachel?"

"No Taurus," Rachel said. "I grew up with this movie. It's funny. I used to go back at the old creek and look for a pirate ship all the time."

"So it is childish, like this Bambi?" Taurus spoke lazily.

"No," Rachel responded. "Ssh, be quiet and see."

The movie was much better than Child's Play. Rachel explained that _most_ movies are better than horror movies. It was not as engaging as Signs (which according to Rachel was an exception to the rule, and that it was a psychological thriller, while Child's Play was a slasher, Taurus was confused, then she explains anything with a guy carrying a machete, axe, or knife is to be avoided, just like real life), and the humor was far different from what occurs in New Olympian comedies. Towards the end, while One Eyed Willy's ship floated off into the sunset, Taurus sat confused on the couch.

Upon Taurus's silence, Rachel explained. "I think part of the humor is watching it as a child and growing up with it. I guess it is completely different if you're an adult and have never seen it before."

"I guess that would make it a good movie," Taurus said scratching his chin.

'You didn't like it?"

"Where was the octopus?"

"Never appeared in the movie," Rachel explained. "It was a mistake, it was left out, but there is a scene with a giant octopus in it."

"Hmm," Taurus said scratching his chin. "Do you have another movie to watch? An adventure one perhaps?"

Rachel looked through her limited movie collection. "How do you feel about Spiceworld?"

&&&

Rachel was going to make pancakes for breakfast. She woke Taurus up when opening one cupboard, a cascade of bowls poured down on the floor. Rachel stood in the center of the tableware chaos, a large plastic mixing bowl on her head. She took the bowl to see a sleepy eyed Taurus attempting to make heads and tails over the sight.

All he managed was with a long yawn, "Miss Wesley, do you need help?"

Rachel did not need help, but Taurus gave it anyway. He never insisted he just did. He took the bowl from Rachel's hands and used it to collect scraps as he worked. Rachel mixed the batter while Taurus peeled and diced apples. He had a pot of sugar water, butter, a cinnamon stick, and star anise steeping in one corner. The kitchen was filled with aromatics; Taurus spooned out the star anise and the cinnamon stick and added the diced apples, thoroughly coated in lemon juice.

Taurus attempted to help Rachel make the pancakes. She gave into him willingly, figuring that he could handle it with ease, only to hear a "PLOP" as her back turned as Taurus attempted to flip the half cooked pancake, after misjudging the height of Rachel's kitchen ceiling the force to use to flip the pancake. The pancake clung to the ceiling like Velcro.

"Miss Rachel Wesley, I do not believe that that will come down," Taurus said, looking up.

"I'll need to get a broom to knock that down. How good are you at catching?" Rachel asked.

"Decent," Taurus answered pouring another ladle into the pan.

Rachel emerged from the closet in her bedroom with a broom and bucket. Taurus stood statuesque, still, unmoving. There was a streak of beige batter down his back.

"Miss Rachel Wesley," he stated through his teeth, "I caught your pancake."

&&&

"It's been a long time since I've had stewed apples on pancakes," Rachel said, slicing through the thick pancakes with her fork. "My grandmother made them every Sunday."

"Really?" Taurus said. "I thought you had never had them before. It has been three years?"

"Almost ten," Rachel answered, "my grandmother passed away when I was thirteen."

"I'm sorry to hear that Miss Rachel Wesley," Taurus said.

"It's okay Mister Taurus. It's always nice to unintentionally find things that remind you of good times," Rachel answered, playing with her fork. Rachel slowly picked at her food, she did not seem to be in an eating mood. Taurus already has his stack of pancakes finished and silently watched Rachel work through hers.

Outside the city began to boom. There were only two times of the day when the city was decently subdued: sunrise and sunset. During sunrise the nocturnal folk were going to bed and the day folk were waking up and tiredly preparing themselves for the day. At sunset the day people were preparing for sleep and quiet rest and the night people woke to prepare for night on the town. So for a brief hour or less, the city was calm, slow. The crash from Rachel digging through the cupboards was only a prequel to the noise currently. Car horns beeped, people shouted, people talked, cell phones rang, dogs barked, radios half-static half loud music blasted from every single opened window, and from somewhere close by Mrs. Briglestone was shouting for her dogs. The noise was muted by the walls of Rachel's apartment and the music seeping from a broken radio playing AM music on her counter. The clatter of the city died into background music as they ate.

He spoke up, tapping his fork on his plate.

"Miss Rachel Wesley, suppose I was to offer you…a payment and a favor all in one little package for all that you have done for me."

"Taurus, you don't need to do that."

"You already know it then?"

"Yes. You keep asking about it. It doesn't take an idiot to figure it out."

"And what do you think of it Miss Wesley?"

She chewed on her fingernail. "My first final is in five days. And that is the paper. After that it is two days till my next two finals, and one day after that is the rest. I think I can pull it off, with a few all nighters. I mean, it would be nice to get out."

Rachel chewed on her thumbnail.

"I am sorry, I did not mean for this to interfere with your studies," Taurus said.

"No, no, no that's all right!" Rachel said, waving it off. "I want to go, and you want to go too. It's a good enough reason to go."

"Miss Rachel Wesley, my offer was merely payment for your generosity. There are no innate reasons in my gesture," Taurus stated, keeping the stony façade.

"I am sorry Mister Taurus," Rachel answered collecting plates, "but yes, I want to go. And thank you for your consideration."

"You are welcome, Miss Rachel Wesley," Taurus answered, drinking the last bit of tea in his cup. He set that cup on a plate and gathered the last remaining dishes.

"And one more thing, Miss Wesley Rachel," Taurus said, then cocked an eyebrow.

"Hmm?" Rachel looked up from the sinking filling with hot water. Taurus walked up to the sink and placed his dishes into the water.

"If you wished for me not to call you Miss Rachel Wesley anymore, you simply needed to ask," Taurus said, pushing Rachel out of the way and placing his hands into the water. He added, "You sound like a school child."

Rachel smiled, her face burning with pride for once, "Now you know how I feel, Mister Taurus."

"You are…quite…an…amusing one," Taurus said as he scrubbed dried batter free from the bowl, then added, "Miss Rachel Wesley."

The blush of pride was quickly replaced with another more familiar blush. As Rachel hid her face behind a curtain of hair as she dried a dish, Taurus allowed himself a smug smile.

_BUY GARGOYLES SEASON 2 VOLUME 1. This is not to go out make you buy it, if you need money for something else more important and more necessary, save your money, but if you are saving up for Season 2 Volume 2, then buy Volume 1. Because if you do not buy Volume 1 there will be no Volume 2, and that means no Taurus, No Guatemalan clan, and the like, and me still working on all this from memory. Just doing my part. _


	9. Down on the Farm Part 1

_I will apologize beforehand for the long time it has taken to update this, as well as Rachel's grandfather's language. I will change that if anyone finds it offensive. My summer didn't go as swimmingly as planned. _

_I will be going through this and canonizing it, so I will be getting rid of the "Seeing is not Believing" at the beginning, I Think. I will try to remain as true to the series as possible. I will be redoing a few parts as well and grammar checking. I broke this chapter into two parts, expect to see more soon. _

**Down on the Farm **

**Part One**

_New Olympus Security Headquarters_

"You're the new guy, huh?" Lyre the siren asked the minotaur striding beside her. In stead of typical red and maroon, the brown furred minotaur wore a dark blue suit with light blue stripes, meaning he worked for social services like security, but his job was purely psychological. His lengthy mane was pulled tightly behind his head in a neat braid.

"I'm not technically the new guy here," Orion answered. "I am not permanently hired here, I might be here for a while, but I do not work for the department. I almost worked here, but I changed my mind."

"Why?" Lyre asked.

Orion spotted Helios from several offices over. Helios spotted Rion and nearly dropped the paperwork he was going to drop on Kiron. Helios ducked away, thinking Orion did not see him. Rion paused for a brief second before he answered; he put his arms behind his back.

"Personal reasons, I felt this was not my place," Rion answered. "And here I am…again. Thanks to my social services classes, I could be only one of two things, and they both lead here one way or another."

"Well you won't be spending most of your time here any way with all the hubbub of the office. We have the screen set up in the back," Lyre said. "You'll be back there."

"Anyone else?" Rion asked.

"Talos will be present plus the intern," Lyre explained. "Boreas picked all you out himself. He felt you three will be appropriate."

"Anyone else know of this?" Orion asked.

"Only you, me, Boreas, and the other two," Lyre answered. "And most of the details were left out when I was given the memo."

"Okay," Rion stated.

They walked down the hallway, Lyre kept looking over her shoulder at Orion.

"Didn't…didn't…didn't you date Aries?" she finally asked.

"Briefly," Orion answered. "We had a fling, but it was not going to work out. Aries never realized the relationship was not going to workout. He could be really one sided sometimes. Aries really wanted emotional support; no one else gave it to him. He was desperate for it...too desperate. It was best for the both of us."

"He never seemed like that type of person, but then it makes sense," Lyre said.

"Can we discuss something else?" Orion asked.

"According to your outfit, you work for the social services, what do you do?" Lyre asked, eyeing Orion's uniform.

"I'm a psycho-social analyst," Orion answered.

"Hmm?"

"I analyze behavior of people and society through their culture. It's my first day as one," Orion answered.

Lyre still looked confused.

"You'll be amazed at what you can learn about people through writing, language, and behavior in groups, media, and the like. It's what people create that makes them. Culture shapes people, shapes how they behave, or what they like. Even rebels are shaped by culture, they may claim that they have no interest in their given culture, but culture and society both shape what they choose to become," Orion answered.

"Interesting," Lyre answered. She brought Rion to a door. "This is the room."

"I just go in?" Rion asked.

"Yep. Talos and the intern are already there," Lyre said. "Only your card works in the door."

Rion took the key card from around his neck and unlocked the door. "Thanks Lyre."

"You're welcome. Have fun."

There was a tiny room, dim with the exception of a screen, flashing blue. Talos sat on a seat, his knees almost drawn to his chest. Ahka, the intern, was sitting on another chair. There was an empty chair between them.

"HI! Hey, didn't I see you at the party the other day?" Ahka asked. "You were with Aries, right?"

Ahka scratched his chin, scrutinizing Rion. "Weren't you a blond?"

"Didn't you take your sister?" Rion stated back at him. Ahka put his hands on his lap and sat up straight.

Rion winced. Rion sat down on a chair, resting his notepad and recorder on his lap.

"Satellite link up is in progress," Talos stated. In the background machine clicked, beeped, whirled, and such and such. "Link up in five…three…two…one."

The screen lit up, a curtain of cracking static.

"So…this is what humans watch?" Ahka asked, bored.

"The appropriate channel is necessary," Talos stated, picking up a massive remote. In his gold fingers, he meticulously turned the dial. Slowly, slowly, slowly…

"GIMME that! Haven't you watched a screen before? You don't go slow like that," Ahka exclaimed, snatching the remote out of Talos's hand. Ahka spoke as he turned the dial, the screen going quickly from black and white needles to bold, round colors, "You go fast, like this, and when something catches your eye, you stop," he paused on a channel. _Hit me baby one more time_ a brightly colored teenaged human female sang, Ahka continued, "Look at the massive forehead on her!" Quickly he returned his attention to the remote, "And when it's boring, change it quickly! You don't want to miss the one second of something interesting possibly happening on another channel."

The screen flashed again, repeatedly as Ahka flicked through the channels. Scarcely was there a break in his channel surfing. The other watchers found it highly annoying, well, Orion found it annoying, Talos may have been just plain perplexed, or too polite to act annoyed. Perhaps with his robot mind, he was able to capture every feverish image that flashed before them._ Star Trek Next Generation_ flashed across a star strewn black screen.

"Hey! That guys sounds just like Chief Taurus!" Ahka blurted out, finally pausing on that particular channel with a show that contained characters that rivaled the New Olympians in appearance and technology. Rion fought back a laugh, and finally began to sputter, and from with in Talos's chest was a loud buzzing, perhaps his form of laughing.

"I can see why Boreas personally chose you for this viewing," Talos stated.

"Thanks!" Ahka exclaimed. Rion slumped down into his seat.

"Oh wow! An animation!" Ahka exclaimed, sliding from his seat onto the floor, only inches away from the screen, the remote tucked underneath him.

"This is going to be a long day," Rion observed as a blue cloudy sky opened up across the screen.

&&&

Somewhere between their sixth and a half animated feature and a commercial involving talking frogs, Rion and Talos succeeded in wrestling the remote off of the intern and settle on a single program to watch steadily for more than the blink of an eye. The intern put up a good fight…in terms of the amount of heart he put into it, not the amount of skill or tact he used…but was finally pressed into a grumbling sulk in between Talos and Rion's chair. Needless to say, the moment the program began, he silenced and focused his attentions fully on the screen.

Talos watched inertly, his own focus on those features before him. In his robotic mind he perfectly remembered the images, the characters, and dissected the plots, the stories, and the actions into logical reasoning. His imitation mind comprehended the ratios and the possibilities portrayed, the "externals" of the shows. He counted, he rationalized, he divided, and compared. He did not watch, and could not watch, purely for pleasure or deepness. He merely took in, analyzed, computed, and surmised.

Rion watched the people; their actions, reactions, and more often than not inactions. Unlike Talos who could simply record the shows, Rion had to use a pen and paper for moments of interest and analyst. Other times he used a recorder to catch certain points he wished to look over in future. During commercials he would type down important theories and observations. More than one occasion he had the pad on his lap, the recorder in one hand catching what he missed, and his little mini computer balanced on top of the pad and pen, typing on it with his remaining hand. In all certainty, he was the most active of the three.

Ahka just watched.

&&&

"That was great!" Ahka exclaimed as they walked out of the dark room into the bright light of the security headquarters. "If you don't mind, I'm gonna go home and hit the sack. Hope the clowns won't eat me!"

A few of workers remaining in the building glanced at Ahka oddly.

"I really hope he doesn't keep saying that," Orion stated.

&&&

Twenty-five pages of hand written notes…six hours of recording…19 images…31 typed pages…three doodles…Orion's desk was covered in papers. Now his nearly antique printer was asthmatically sputtering out papers from Talos.

The printer was just one of many irritations. He had scarcely recuperated from the dinner, in fact it was the morning after, when a delivery man from Boreas's office knocked on his door and handed over a letter. Orion was more than groggy and simply took the letter, set it on his counter and went back to bed. Aries had followed him practically home, the only advantage of that entire scenario was any guests decided to taker their frustration out on Rion, dared not follow. Rion simply figured that the letter involved nothing more than dinner issues. Around dinner, when Rion was awake enough and the throbbing sensation left his temples, he opened the letters and one package (delivered at some point while he was asleep) that accumulated on his counter. Many bills, some hate mail, more credit offers. Rion skipped through the letters, tossing almost all in the garbage, and piling up the ones that needed open off to the side. He opened the package first. He found badges for a harness, and was completely dumfounded until he discovered the letter, at the bottom of the pile.

_Congratulations Orion Asterus with your new position as a human social scientist. Consider your missing and necessary credits to be earned through work at the Security Headquarters. _

_Best of luck Boreas _

The result was a very groggy Orion calling Boreas's office, being put on hold for the better part of half an hour (adding to his calling bill), and confirming what he just read. It took four secretaries before he finally spoke to Boreas himself. He was expected at security headquarters the next morning for a special viewing.

Ten hours later, he was back at his apartment, arms filled with books, papers, and contraptions, at his desk working hysterically.

One room over his housemate, every few minutes, would turn of the volume to her screen, till finally the only sounds in the apartment were the rickety printer and the vibrations from the shows. Then the reverberations cut off. The communicator in the kitchen rang.

"Hey Rion! It's for you!" Leda exclaimed.

"Tell them I'm busy," Rion exclaimed over stacks of paper and equipment.

"Ah…it's Boreas," Leda said. The printer began to choke up again at that moment. Orion sighed, pressed pause, and headed out into the kitchen.

"Thanks Leda," he said tiredly and picked up the mouth piece. "Hello Boreas. Yeah, I received Talos's reports. They're printing out right now."

From Rion's work room, Leda exclaimed, "Rion! Your printer's gone crazy!"

"Albeit slowly," Rion added.

"That's good," Boreas said. "As you know I have already conversed with Talos. I just finished my meeting with the intern."

"That must have been fun," Rion grumbled on his breath.

"What?"

"Oh nothing, I was telling my housemate Leda to change the filter on the printer," Rion said, "that's all."

"I'm quite curious about your finds so far, since you have to input the most effort into the project, after all Talos is a robot, and Ahka, is well…"

"An idiot, a perfect test subject," Rion stated.

"Yes, he seems to have suffered no ill effects, other than spouting out random quotes. I felt anyone else would react too violently to human programming, he seemed too oblivious to give biased answers," Boreas said. "Now tell me, how is your assessment coming?"

"It's going…great," Rion said, glancing over his shoulder as Leda tugged several scrunched up pages from his printer. She pulled a few inches out, and the printer sucked the papers right back in, resulting in another violent tug-a-war, and the printer was winning.

"Tell me, what did you observe when you watched the human shows? Just what you noticed, none of your notes, just tell me off the top of your head. No analysis, just speak as a normal level headed citizen."

"The shows," Rion stated, scratching at his chin, "it was just like watching our own."

"What do you mean, watching our own?"

"I mean, they were different, some of the subject matter was strange, they had many stories about the future, unlike us, who have programming about the past, and there was heavy comedy as well. But the characters, the stories, they were, all the same. It's like fish, there's many ways to serve a fish. Underneath it all, they were the same programming archetypes."

"So you mean, to say, in many ways, they are similar to us?"

"In a ways, yes, but until then I really have not come to a conclusion."

"Tell me Orion, what about the violence in the human programming?"

"Violence was present in their programming, but…"

"But what?"

"It was very present but, it didn't shock or frighten me, it didn't worry me. It was like I just decided to turn on my screen and sit down and watch some programming. There was violence, yes, but it was not like all the programming was humans going out and just killing different creatures because they were different, there was not just murdering and killing on there because they could. The antagonists in the shows only did, there was violence in self defense, there animated violence, there was comic violence," Orion said.

"So they're just like us then, more like us than we thought," Boreas said. "Thank you Orion, expect more screening later."

Boreas quickly hung up. Rion stood in his kitchen, a little startled.

Boreas walked to his desk, his head down to the ground. "This situation may be much graver than I thought previously."

&&&

It was near nightfall when Rachel and Taurus finally arrived on the farm. The east was a dark blue and specks of stars could already be seen on the horizon; towards the west was a scar of bright red from the setting sun.

Rachel had Taurus park his hoverbike near a large wooden structure, joined to a long, hall like building. Almost immediately upon landing, a chorus of haunting calls emanated from the shadowy fields. Taurus spooked, crouching on the ground, prepared to talk to whatever raced from the darkness. The hairs on his neck bristled up, making his Mohawk even more imposing.

"MOOOOOOO," rose up from the fields. Immediately afterwards another "MOOO" answered. Something…_.some things_….heavy footfalls resounded through the night.

"Miss Wesley, what is that?" Taurus said snoring mist into the night air. Rachel was completely indifferent. In fact, she just stood there…looking at him.

"Those are cows Taurus," Rachel said.

Taurus's face screwed into something unreadable mixture. "Cows…that is….those Rachel said, she pressed her pointer fingers against her temples, forming horns. "Dairy cows."

Taurus stood up, and immediately regaining his composure, only a few stray hairs notified of his scarcely milliseconds earlier position. Rachel opened the doors to the barn, the heavy doors skidding loudly on the gravel and dry dirt. A few moments later, yellowish amber light flicked on. Almost immediately moths and small flies buzzed around the light.

"Bring it in Taurus," Rachel said, gesturing to Taurus from the doorframe. Taurus pushed the hoverbike up into the barn. Upon entrance he was bathed in a heavy, earthy smell…grass, straw, animals, wood, dust. For a moment, it was overpowering.

"Here, we'll put it here," Rachel called, completely unfazed, out between to large, dust covered crates. She pulled off a length of tarp out of one the crates, and cracked it loudly, freeing a layer of dust. Together they covered the hovercraft.

"You're gonna love it here Taurus," Rachel repeated as they tucked the corners of the tarp away. "It will be like nothing else you've ever experienced."

"It is already like nothing I have ever experienced," Taurus stated. The two walked out of the barn. Taurus offered to shut the door this time. With the exception of the crunch of gravel under their feet and lowing of the cows in the distance, the walk to the house was quite, intense.

"Miss Rachel Wesley, do you wish for me to stay on the porch while you speak with your grandfather?" Taurus asked.

"It's okay Taurus, he'll want to meet you as soon as possible. This is completely out of the blue," Rachel said. "Promise to be on your best behavior."

"Miss Rachel Wesley that is nothing you have to concern yourself with," Taurus answered, offended.

"I was joking Taurus," Rachel said. "I forgot you can't take a joke."

Taurus snorted. The backdoor open suddenly and golden light spurt forth.

"What the hell! Get away from my cattle! Jesus—Rachel?"

"Grandpa!" Rachel exclaimed flinging herself around her grandfather. Her grandfather hugged her in returned. Taurus had to smile at the scene.

"It's so good to see you again sweetheart! How did you get here—Jesus Christ!" he exclaimed letting go of Rachel. Rachel fell to her knees. Both Taurus and her grandfather jumped backwards.

"Grandpa, this….is Taurus, he's a minotaur, if you haven't noticed. He's the man you heard on the phone," Rachel said, gesturing towards the minotaur with both her hands. Her face was burning red, such a bright shade of red that light was not needed to see it.

"Son of a bitch," he said, dumbfounded. Taurus snarled, taking the interjection as a derogatory statement. "And I thought you were going to come home with a gangster. Your parents are not going to believe this one Rachel."

Rachel leapt up. "Mom and Dad are not going to find out about this, Grandpa. It's a secret. No one is supposed to know about Taurus."

"Jesus Christ Rachel, where the hell did you find this one?" her grandfather spat out.

"Let's discuss this in the house," Rachel said, taking her grandfather by his arm and leading him to the glow of the opened doorway. Heavily weighed down with their baggage, Taurus followed behind the two; Rachel leading, trying to fully support her stunned grandfather. Her grandfather mumbled to himself.

Inside the kitchen, Rachel's grandfather was all too eager to sit down in a wooden chair, which he fell into like a dead weight, still mumbling. Taurus, ungracefully clamored up, his hooves catching on the short, small steps. Finally he walked sideways through the door to fit through, and Rachel's grandfather's jaw nearly fell off at the size of the minotaur, no longer blanketed by the darkness of night. Taurus's horns caught on the sign reading "Country Home Kitchen, all guests welcome", and pulled it off the wall, where it by its wire it hung on his horn. Taurus remained frozen, his arms full of their baggage, in the doorframe.

Unexpectedly her grandfather burst out laughing, cracking his hand off of his knee. "Got yourself a city boy, huh Rachel? I thought somethin' was up when I hear the cows start mooing like something weird is botherin' them, mooing differently. Never heard the cows moo like that before, boy, **were we** in for a **surprise**."

Rachel pulled the sign off of Taurus's horn and set it on the counter, Taurus gently set their belongings on the tile, kitchen floor. Nervously, worrying that the chair could not carry his weight, Taurus pulled a faded green chair out from the kitchen table.

"Those chairs supported Fran's sisters' fat asses for over twenty five years, they can support you," her grandfather spoke up. Taurus surmised that humor—combined with foul language—was his way of dealing with this form of shock.

Taurus sat down quickly. "I am thankful for allowing me to visit this farm."

"You're welcome," her grandfather answer and looked straight at Rachel.

"No one can find out about Taurus," Rachel said. "It's a secret, between to the two of us."

"You have my word Rachel, you know that," her grandfather said, grasping her hands. "You told the right person. I'm at the age of senility, if I go out sprurtin' this to people they'll think its about time to be puttin' me in an old folks home."

"Thanks Grandpa," Rachel answered. "I appreciate it."

"Well at least you didn't bring home some gun totin' gang member, or hippie, or a freak with a Mohawk and a piercing…" he glanced over at Taurus, as he clutched his forehead, "nevermind."

"I suppose you two need rooms to sleep in?" he asked. "Haven't moved out your mother and uncles' old rooms, beds are still there. Thinking about it for years, haven't done it yet, don't plan on doing it for a while. I think your friend could fit in Eddy and Bill's old bed, as long as he doesn't bust anything up with those horns of his."

"I assure you sir, my horns will be no problem. If you do not feel safe, I have brought my own sleeping mat, and I can set it up and sleep on it instead," Taurus answered.

"You're a guest here, you're sleeping in a bed," her grandfather said. "If your grandmother was alive she'll make sure the two of you get the best treatment you possibly get."

"You need anything, Taurus?" Rachel asked.

Taurus shook his head. "I am fine, Miss Wesley."

"I'm gonna call it a night," her grandfather said, scratching his head. "After a couple shots, but I'm gonna call it a night and sort this out tomorrow. You know where the bedrooms are. My heart needs a rest…"

A few moments a later, a door shut. Taurus and Rachel remained sitting in the kitchen.

"Are you sleepy?" Rachel asked; there was very little to discuss.

"A little," Taurus answered.

"You're going to love it here. I had a lot fun here when I was little," Rachel said.

"I bet you have," Taurus answered. "Your grandfather…he seems…strange."

"He's my grandfather," Rachel answered as if that explained it all. "He's old and seen everything; war, the Great Depression, the 60s, everything, and now you. You can only imagine what it is like for a guy who thought he has seen it all then you walk through his door."

"How old is he?"

"Seventy-five," Rachel answered.

Taurus nodded and tapped his fingers on the table.

"I'll show where you'll sleep for the night," Rachel said. "You're probably tired, and I think my grandfather will be out for the rest of the night."

"Thanks…Rachel," Taurus stated.

"No, thank you, Taurus. I'm very happy to be back," Rachel said as they walked through the living room. "Surprisingly."

Rachel had one hand on the banister and one foot on the steps. Taurus paused beside the piano, its top covered in framed photographs and a light layer of whitish dust. He picked one small framed photograph up.

"You Miss Rachel Wesley?" he asked, showing the photograph, a very young Rachel in a maroon softball gear holding up a bat and prepared to swing like the champions on baseball cards.

"Yeah, that's me. I don't know why my grandpa keeps that around. I was only in softball one year. I never hit the ball, not even once, I was even worse in the outfield," Rachel said. "It wasn't like I never caught the ball; I always caught the ball and dropped it."

Taurus set the picture down. Rachel was halfway up the stairs when Taurus followed behind her. The stairs threatened to crack under his weight.

"They're old steps Taurus, don't worry," Rachel said. It was difficult for the minotaur to walk up the small steps. "They always make that noise."

Rachel lead Taurus down the hallway to an old door decorated in basketball and beer posters from the 1970s.

"This was my uncles' room," Rachel said. "For once you can sleep on a bed, not a floor, and without getting wet."

"What did your landlady do about the waterbed?" Taurus asked.

"I lied and told her when I was baby sitting one of the dogs they chewed on the mattress and it started to leak," Rachel answered. "That room still smells."

"I am sorry for that Miss Wesley. I promise the same won't happen here. I will be careful of my horns," Taurus answered.

"That's okay," Rachel laughed. "Good night Taurus."

"Good night Rachel," Taurus answered. Rachel shut the door.

The bed, it was two separate beds pushed together, was quite comfortable, not as comfortable as his bed at home, but it was quaint. Taurus lay on his back. He never thought humans were capable of making comfortable beds. He heard Rachel walking down the hallway to her own room, the floor creaking which each footfall. The whole room vibrated with each step.

Taurus put his hands behind his head. He was not exactly tired, but he was not awake either. He could fall asleep anytime he wanted to, but his mind was reeling with a variety of thoughts.

The air was heavy with a new scent, a smell he never truly experienced…age, time passing, lives passed. The wood, the fabric, the wall paper, the mattress, captures the smells of the years, something concrete and metal was highly incapable of, something glass of museums kept at a distant, something programming and books could never capture. There was an odd stirring deep inside him, primitive, unwelcomed, oddly missed. He felt the warmth of many lives, like hands closing around him. Taurus rolled onto his side.

His eyes caught something on the wall as he drifted of into the sleep. A set of horns on a plaque decorated the wall along with vintage posters. Taurus attempted to close his eyes, but could not shake the feeling of those horns. Finally he stood up and walked over to the set of horns.

_This plaque is dedicated to the proud bull of the Randall family who died for the sake of humanity in 1961. _

Taurus winced and crawled back into bed, his eyes focused on the plaque. He rolled over on his side, back towards the horns and curled up to attempt to sleep.

The next morning as Rachel's grandfather quietly snuck down to the kitchen, he stubbed his toe on the plague, lying in the hallway.

_&&&_

"BREAKFAST!"

Taurus lifted his head, groggy from sleep.

"BREAKFAST!" her grandfather shouted then shook a bell. "BREAKFAST!"

Taurus groaned. It couldn't possibly be that early, it was still dark out. There was a gentle knock at the door.

"BREAKFAST!"

"GRANDPA! WE HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME!" Rachel shouted back as she opened the door to Taurus's room, thoroughly distracted by her grandfather. "Taurus…EEP!"

"Miss Wesley!" Taurus exclaimed with his back to her as he quickly pulled his kilt on.

"I'm sorry Taurus," Rachel said, her face was the brightest shade of red yet. Taurus strolled out the room, his harness tossed over his shoulder.

"Breakfast," Rachel said sheepishly, looking at the floorboards. Taurus was clad only in his kilt; the night was hot for a person used to the comfort of sleeping with an air conditioner on his entire life, Rachel on the other hand, was wearing a set of plaid pajamas covered in a bathrobe.

Silently, with the exception of the creaking floor, they walked down the hall and steps.

"Grandfather is making your favorite," Rachel stated staring between Taurus's shoulder blades.

"Pancakes? Did you tell him too?" Taurus asked.

"It's the only breakfast food he knows how to make," Rachel answered. "That and eggs and bacon."

"I can settle for that," Taurus stated.

"BREAKFAST!" her grandfather shouted impatiently, then banged on a breakfast triangle.

"WE HEAR YOU!" Rachel shouted back.

"Bout time," her grandfather said as they entered the kitchen. He had the table set with a steaming pile of pancakes and bacon. "Your breakfast is getting cold."

"Thanks Grandpa," Rachel said and gave her grandfather a hug. Taurus entered the kitchen just a few inches behind her.

"Thanks—"

"Call me Charlie," he answered.

"Thanks, Charlie," Taurus answered.

At the table they ate breakfast while the sun rose through the windows.

"How's school goin' for you Rachel?"

"Good," Rachel answered as she ate.

"Jobs goin' fine?"

"Yep."

"What do you do for a living, Taurus?"

"I'm officer of security for my homeland," Taurus answered, then added, "these pancakes are much better than Miss Rachel Wesley's pancakes, sorry Rachel."

"It's because they don't come from a box, handmade, all scratch, and the eggs are from chickens on the farm and so is the milk, good stuff, none of that lowfat, fed a vegetarian diet shit you like to eat, Rachel. Beats the hell out of city food, doesn't it?" Charlie said.

"Yes Grandpa," Rachel blandly stated.

"Taurus, why don't you try some bacon?" Charlie asked, lifting up a plate of crackling, dry strips. "Good stuff, we couldn't have this around while Fran was alive, 'bout drove me insane. I've been eating it everyday since the good lord took her away."

"Grandpa, Taurus won't eat bacon," Rachel answered.

"That is fine, Rachel, I am willing to try it. In all good manners, I must," Taurus answered picking up a stiff, crackly piece of bacon. He broke the piece in half and popped it into his mouth. It was salty, like the dry salted sardines popular with some New Olympians, though not as strongly tasting. Taurus still did not like that taste, too strong. Taurus spat the mouthful into a napkin.

"Don't like it?" Charlie asked.

"I am sorry, but I do not," Taurus answered cleaning the palate with a fork full of pancakes.

"They don't have bacon where you come from," Charlie said. "Shame."

"Grandpa, I'm planning on going back home to work on the computer. Is it okay if you show Taurus the farm?" Rachel asked.

"Fine with me," Charlie answered. "You going to surprise them?"

"Yeah," Rachel said. "I'm going to go get ready."

"Have fun," Charlie said. "Come one Taurus, finish up, there's animals that need fed."

Taurus chugged his milk and followed Charlie out the kitchen door.

"Have fun Taurus!" Rachel shouted down the steps.

"I've got the chickens this morning," Charlie said. "They're fed and watered. The cattle and pigs need fed."

"Horses," Taurus stated as they walked through the dewy, cold grass, pulling his harness on. "Miss Rachel Wesley told me you once had horses."

"Six of them," Charlie answered. "Got rid of five of them, too much hassle, and the grandkids out grew them. We just have one, Clover."

"So what do you produce on this farm?" Taurus asked.

"Dairy cattle mostly, some chickens for the eggs, and a few pigs," her grandfather answered after a moment of thought.

Out in a massive pasture twenty or thirty so black and white cows rambled about in the distance. As Taurus and Charlie walked along the dirt path around the fence, the cows started, comically, racing towards the fence.

"They know when it's time to eat," Charlie said with a chuckle as the cows began to bellow eagerly in their charge. They paused almost thirty feet from the fence with one synchronized moo. They raised their heads and stared stupidly at Taurus. Taurus stared back. Charlie was about twenty feet ahead of Taurus when he did not hear the heavy footfalls of the minotaur. He looked back to see Taurus and the cows in a stare down, both in confusion. The normally stoic cows bore the most humanly possible expression of confusion. Had Rachel been there, she most likely would have fallen over laughing….and laughing…and laughing. Charlie did not know Taurus long enough to savor the rarity of a lenghty confused/shocked expression on his face.

Charlie continued to the barn, a large barn building in which a long, narrow building was attached to, and came out with a five gallon bucket filled with pellets and corn kernels, dragging the heavy bucket along the ground. He emptied the mixture into the troughs, the raindrops on a tin roof sound waking the cows and Taurus from their stupor. With eager moos, they raced to the trough.

"They're Holsteins, Holsteins are black and white, occasionally come brown and white," Charlie answered proudly. He paused and scanned Taurus with his eyes, then scratched his chin. "You know, I never seen a grey and black cow before. I don't even think Texas Longhorns come in solid grey and black either."

"Minotaurs came from that?" Taurus said mostly to himself, scratching his jowl-less chin. "We don't look anything like that."

"Well, they're dairy cows for one, bit more docile, and perhaps cows looked a lot different back when the Minotaur was created," Charlie offered. "How long ago was that?"

"Three Thousand? Four Thousand? We do not know for sure," Taurus answered.

"I've never one for the legends, specially the Greek legends, just a bunch of naked guys prancing 'round slaying monsters. Would never ever Rachel to come home with you, you know….not in a long shot, never thought about it," Charlie answered. "Even though I know there's some characters in New York City."

"One of those naked men slain my ancestor," Taurus answered.

"Hercules right, from the TV show?"

"Theseus," Taurus spat out.

"Thank god you're fully dressed," Charlie blandly stated as he turned.

"Lets get the hay bales out for the cattle, I need your help for it," Charlie said.

Charlie went into the barn and climbed up into a loft filled with squarish bales of hale. "I'm gonna toss these down and you take 'em into the pasture, okay?"

"I have it Charlie," Taurus answered, the name Charlie feeling awkward in his mouth.

Charlie heaved down the first one, Taurus caught and heaved it right out the door in one powerful toss. Taurus caught and heaved out every single bale.

Finally, a dozen bales later, they were finished. Out in the pasture, in one perfect pile, was the hay. Taurus succeeded in not only tossing the bales into the pasture into one neat pile, but they landed with such force that the twine around them snapped allowing easier access to the hay for the cattle. The cows swarmed around it hungrily gulping it down.

"I'll be damned," Charlie said.

"Hmm?" Taurus asked.

"Normally takes me an hour to do that," Charlie said, "that took about twenty minutes. You interested in a job here?"

"No…no, no thanks…Charlie, but I am needed in my homeland," Taurus stuttered.

"I was just jostling you," Charlie chucked and slapped Taurus on the shoulder. "But you still did a pretty damn good job."

"You're welcome," Taurus answered.

"Come one, I'll show the pigs, they're in the back here," Charlie said, his hand still on Taurus's shoulder.

The pigs, correction one mother pig and about a dozen piglets, were in a pen in the corner of the barn. The piglets were tiny, Charlie could easily pick on up with his hand. Taurus could hold two or three in just one of his hands, perhaps more.

"These are the pigs, that's Big Momma, had her for years, best sow in the entire county, always has big litters," Charlie stated.

"What do you do with pigs?" Taurus asked.

"Eat 'em," Charlie answered matter of fact.

"Eat them?"

"That bacon this morning, that was pig, pork," Charlie said. "You don't eat a lot meat where you come, do you?"

"Fish mostly, occasionally poultry, or protein supplements," Taurus answered, internally wincing.

"Never liked fish. There's not a lot of fish here, so we have to get our protein somewhere," Charlie said. Charlie fed the pigs, showing Taurus how to twist an ear of dried corn to take off all the kernels. Taurus never mastered the motion. Most of the dried ears of corn snapped in half rather than relinquish their kernels. And the few they did relinquish stuck to his sweaty palms.

"You wanna hold a pig?" Charlie asked Taurus. "Just a little one, real cute when they're little."

Taurus did not answer. Charlie opened the gate and picked up one of the piglets. It squealed loudly as if its tail was caught in a ringer.

"Don't mind the squealing, they're always squealing. It's what pigs do best," Charlie said. "Hold on carefully, they're slippery buggers."

Taurus held the pig in both of his hands, forming a cage around its tiny form. He could not describe the feeling of holding a little piglet. Its skin was soft, even softer than Rachel's skin, maybe soft as a baby human, but the skin felt thick, rubbery, sprouted little fine hairs. It was warm, very warm. The pig squealed bloody murder with such intensity Taurus thought he was hurting it, and tried to wriggle through the finger bars of its prison. Taurus nearly dropped the piglet. A second later it slipped through his fingers and Charlie caught it like a hot potato. He placed the piglet into pen and it rushed to its little brethren.

"What do you think?" Charlie asked, proud.

"Wiggly," Taurus answered, scratching his chin as he mulled over the word and its appropriateness being used by him. "Very wiggly."

There was a chorus of agitated moos.

"What is bothering the cows?" Taurus asked. "It is not me, is it?"

"Nah, they just want milked," Charlie said.

"Milked?" Taurus, knowing the meaning of the action, but not the mechanics.

Charlie let the cows in, each lining up individually in a stall, mooing intensely and angrily. Charlie showed Taurus some wicked looking machines.

"You milk the cows with that?" Taurus asked nervously.

"It's fast, the milk travels down those pipes to a tank where it's pasteurized," Charlie explained. "Cows enjoy it; that milk causes pressures in their udders. Some of those ECO idiots out there claim that milking the cows is painful. Calls it 'raping' them. As you can see, you don't milk them, they get pissed off. That milk hurts them, can cause serious damage in their udders, broken blood vessels and such."

Charlie began to hook the cows up to the machines. Taurus stood in the corner, holding a machine in his hands, the cow beside him impatiently mooing. Apprehensively Taurus approached the cow and attached the contraption to the cow's udders, after much struggling. The cow let loose a long moo, startling Taurus. The minotaur fell backwards, landing flat on his rump.

"You've got city boy written all over you, you know that?" Charlie said, hooking up the final cow.

"I know nothing else but that," Taurus answered from the floor.

&&&

Charlie showed Taurus the inner workings of the milk process, the maze of pipes and the vats, before sending the cows out to pasture again.

Charlie wasted no time in presenting the many other attributes of the farm the rest of the morning. Taurus took everything in during the walk. There was the apple orchard, already shooter marble sized fruits sprouted on the branches, and the ground was littered with cast aside petals, the old fresh water stream that originally supplied the farm with water till almost forty years ago. There was Charlie's small vegetable garden, the chicken coop, and the crates for the roosters not meant for breeding. The chicken coop door was too small for Taurus, but Charlie explained that the breed of chickens this year were renowned for having colored eggs, some in the shades of light blue and pink. He said that they were a cross between two separate bird breeds, and the birds didn't start laying colored eggs until recently. Mostly they laid white and brown-green eggs. Though it was a tight squeeze, Taurus managed to fit through door in the incubation shed. Here the fertile eggs were placed in special Plexiglas containers and warmed by lamps. Charlie allowed Taurus to hold a chick…it was just a day old he said.

"So how's it feel?"

"Fluffy…very fluffy."

"I have never seen anything like this before," Taurus commented as he closed the door of the incubation shed. "It is incredible."

Taurus sniffed the air. "But the smell…eh…I do not believe I could get used to that."

Charlie inhaled the air, his chest expanding, "That's the smell of a farm, Taurus. That's how they're supposed to smell."

"Then I am glad in my choice of a career," Taurus stated, and allowed a small smile to follow that. Something pink flashed before his eyes. "Charlie…what was that?"

"Huh?" Charlie said and looked behind him. "I don't see anything."

"Perhaps it was mere optical illusion," Taurus stated.

There was another flash of pink, just as Taurus turned his head. "Charlie, there it is again!"

"What is?" Charlie turned just in time to catch a little piglet plow through the weeds and nearly into him. The piglet easily ran between Taurus legs, almost throwing the towering minotaur off balance. "Je-SUS! Get those bastards!"

"What?" Taurus said.

"Get 'em before they root up the garden!" Charlie exclaimed.

Confusedly Taurus darted after where he last saw the piglet. Just as he turned, a piglet—most likely not the piglet he saw milliseconds later—squealed behind. Taurus spun around, becoming dizzy in the process.

&&&

Rachel just pulled into the driveway. She did not get much accomplished academically. She didn't get much accomplished, but she still managed to get more than planned accomplished. Her family was more than happy to see her, and after the bonds were reestablished, she had a few hours to start her paper. Her mother wanted her to spend her time home at the house, instead at the farm, but Rachel declined, next to the fact there was a minotaur from a strange, technologically advanced land wandering around her grandfather's farm, her bedroom was currently taken up by her sister, Claire, Claire's husband, and Claire's three year old daughter, Carlie, as their house was rebuilt after the fire. There simply wasn't enough room for her, and she'll be back tomorrow to finish her paper.

Neither Charlie nor Taurus was in the house, all the lights were off and the house silent. Rachel went to the sink and filled up a glass of water. She sipped as she looked out the window on the serene scene. The cows lingered in the fields. Wild birds pecked at the suet and seeds at the feeder. A barn cat slunk around the corner of the barn. It was great to be back.

Suddenly a piglet burst out onto the scene as if hell was on its hooves.

Rachel shouted setting her glass on the counter and turned to the door just as a flash of grey entered her field of vision.

"What the?" she said as Taurus nearly trampled the piglet. He turned, just snatching it up as it prepared to bolt again. He held the piglet up, and it nearly wiggled out of his finger tips. He caught it as it plummeted towards the ground. Rachel heard no sound, the scene oddly similar to an ancient film reel. From off screen, the mother pig charged onto the scene, hitting the unsuspecting minotaur, with his back turned to her and her baby in his hands, right in the knees. Taurus and piglet toppled backwards. Taurus hit the ground, the piglet landed on his chest (probably not a soft land, but softer than Taurus's). Piglet and mother quickly absconded.

Taurus remained on the ground for several moments. He saw black, then spinning stars, and finally the sky, as his breath started to slowly come back to him. Rachel expressionless face blocked his view of the sky. He tasted dust.

"Not a word Miss Wesley! Not a word!"

"Taurus, I don't think a word could describe that entire scene."

&&&

"That reminds me a joke, a true story actually," Charlie in his chair said to Taurus. Taurus sat on the chair swing, bruised, but not beaten. Rachel was sitting on the floor at his feet, studying. Papers, note cards, and diagrams covered a good portion of the porch. She was off in her own little world. "Years ago I was driving down the road, and I was going across this old turn, not there anymore since the county fixed it, and this woman passed me going in the opposite direction. She leans out her window and screams "PIG" at me really loudly and suddenly. So what did I do?"

"What did you do?" Taurus asked.

"Screamed "BITCH" back at her," Charlie said. He looked at the porch planks. "Next thing I know I hit my own damn pig rootin' in the middle of the road."

Taurus looked up, thinking.

"Not much of a joke guy are you?" Charlie asked, but mostly stated.

"In my line of work a sense of humor is an unnecessary accessory," Taurus answered, not haughtily.

"Really? One of my buddies, good old guy, was sheriff around for a long time, forty years? Well he said it was one of those kinda jobs, you know, one that you had have a sense of humor to make it day by day," Charlie said.

"Yes, some people believe that," Taurus stated, the image of his father's face appearing instantly, "but if you are not serious enough you will end up paying the price. Some prices are steeper than others. It is better to be on your toes all the time."

"Huh," Charlie said and leaned back in his chair. He slowly began to rock back and forth. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Rachel turning her attention to her papers; she must have been listening in. Now she overdramatically buried herself in her papers.

&&&

Taurus was still on the swing when Rachel approached him, with a big grin on her face and a carrot in her hand.

"What is Rachel?" Taurus asked.

"My grandfather did not show you Clover did he?" Rachel asked.

"Clover?" Taurus said. There were so many names, so many new words, his mind was rattled.

"The horse," Rachel answered. "I want to show you Clover."

"Yes, I would like to see the horse," Taurus said, energetically and stood up. In a second he was right beside her.

Rachel took Taurus up to another pasture, separate from the cows. The cows only managed a mere glance at Taurus then went back to grazing. Taurus however, still found them oddly…striking. There was a third pasture, where a cow, more imposing than the rest grazed by itself.

"That's the bull," Rachel said. "I'm not sure what his name is. Bulls are very aggressive, so don't look directly…."

"MOOOOO!"

"I did not look Miss Wesley!" Taurus quickly stated as the bull charged to the fence.

"He must smell you then," Rachel stated as the bull assertively trotted towards them.

Taurus placed his hand on Rachel and pushed her back. He looked down at the bull, his horns lower. The bull was massive, way as much if not more than Taurus, but Taurus towered over it. The sun caught on his gilded horns and glinted. The bull rumbled. Taurus snorted and crossed his arms. Rachel watched incredulously with a look of complete bafflement on her face. The bull mooed and trotted away, not looking back.

"Well congratulations Taurus," Rachel said sarcastically walking up beside him, her arms crossed liked his, "you just beat a cow in a staring contest."

In the fields the cows mooed in chorus.

"And won their affection," Rachel chuckled.

"Not funny…"

Up at another pasture Rachel began to call out for the horse, tapping on the fence posts with the carrot. "Here Clover! Heeeerrrrrrreeee Clover!"

Clover whinnied from a cluster of chestnut trees. The horse trotted up to the two, well to Rachel. She completely ignored Taurus. Clover butted her nose against Rachel's palm and reached out for the carrots. Rachel broke off a chunk of carrot and offered it to the very eager horse.

"She loves carrots," Rachel said, scratching behind the horse's ear. She pressed her face against the horse's face. "I missed her so much."

Taurus reached out to pet the horse. A split second later he pulled his hand away as the horse revealed the nasty looking teeth, hidden behind the pliable black lips.

"Wah!" Taurus exclaimed. Just as quickly the horse turned affectionately back to Rachel. Rachel gave the horse a pat and turned to Taurus.

"Here," Rachel said, handing him a chunk of carrot. Taurus held the tiny, insignificant piece of cartoon between his large fingers. He looked at the carrot then looked at the innocent appearing brown horse, which was looking at the insignificant piece of carrot. Taurus looked at Rachel.

"Go on, give it to her," Rachel compelled. She put her hand on his shoulder and gave him a push.

Taurus slowly edged back to the horse. The horse's tail flicked back and forth, like a cat ready to pounce on some unsuspecting grey mouse. Taurus held the carrot out.

Clover revealed those teeth again, and leaned over the fence at Taurus's palm. She scooped the carrot out of his hand and crunched on it. Taurus's hand remained out. Rachel chucked as she leaned against him. Clover butted his hand. Taurus rubbed his hand over his snout. He smiled.

"Good job," Rachel joked from under his other arm. "Come on, let's go in and meet her."

Inside the pasture Clover happily trotted up to the couple, greeting Rachel first, of course (she had another carrot in her back pocket), then greeted Taurus, but quickly turned her affections back to Rachel. Rachel petted her mane.

"She's a beautiful horse," Taurus stated. "I wonder what would happen if Kiron saw her."

Rachel looked up. "Who is Kiron?"

"Just a person I work with," Taurus stated, "do not think too hard on it. It was just a thought."

"Oh," Rachel said. "So you like her then?"

"Yes, she is beautiful, like nothing I've ever seen before. Is she able to be ridden?" Taurus asked.

"Yes," Rachel answered. "Well you can't ride her, but I can. It's been a while though…"

"I would like to see you ride her," Taurus said.

"Give me a moment, I have to go get her saddle from the stable," Rachel said. A few minutes later she came back, struggling with the massive saddle. She hooked Clover up and Taurus helped her mount the horse (though he applied a bit too much force, and she nearly fell over the horse).

Rachel took Clover for a few rounds around the pasture while Taurus watched her. Rachel could not help but look at the expression on his face. For once the expression on his face lightened for more than a second. In face, Rachel had to double take.

Clover suddenly bucked when she frightened a group of pheasants in a bush. The pheasants loudly flapped away, even startling Taurus (who ducked) at the fence as if he was being shot at. The reigns slid from half distracted Rachel's hands.

"Uh oh," Rachel said and landed with a thud on the ground and a cloud of dust.

Taurus rushed towards her. Just the dust cloud settle, Rachel stood up; her back and backside were smeared with the same orange-brown color of the dust. Taurus nearly skidded into her.

"Miss Wesley are you all right?" Taurus asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, my ego is another thing," she said, scratching at the dust in her hair. "I didn't hit my head or anything, but my tailbone is going to be sore for days. I really should have been paying attention. Yech!"

She stuck her tongue out; it was the same color of the soil.

"Yes, Rachel, you should have," Taurus stated as she coughed out the dirt.

"If I don't recall, wasn't earlier today wasn't someone bowled over by a pig?" Rachel asked wryly, then spit on the ground. She walked over to Clover, gave her a reassurance pat and began to lead her back to stable.

"The pig merely had a surprise tactical advantage over me," Taurus answered as he up from behind her.

"A tactical advantage, eh?" Rachel said looking up at him, completely not believing him.

"Yes," Taurus stated, "these pigs of yours have proven to have a much higher intelligence than I expected as well as excellent blitzing tactics."

Rachel suddenly squealed. "Oh no! They got out again!"

Taurus jumped, looking immediately behind him.

"Not funny Rachel!"

"Couldn't help myself."

&&&

"Taurus, can you stand behind the tree there?" Rachel asked.

"Why Miss Wesley?" Taurus asked.

"I have clean up; my grandfather will get upset if he sees me covered in dirt. I don't need to be giving him two heart attacks in just as many days," Rachel said.

"Understandable, Miss Wesley," Taurus stated.

"Don't look!" Rachel said as she headed down to the farm's spring.

"I will not Rachel," Taurus stated leaning back against a tree. "I do not why you act like you like such, you know I am trustworthy."

Rachel looked up as she beat the dust from her shirt. The dirt fortunately did not rub off into her tank top, and it remained unstained. She wiped the dust from her pants and waded into the water. The water was just as cleaned as the water from the faucet, as her grandfather told her. Whether or not this was just another one of her grandfather's many stories, Rachel was unsure, but she has yet to become sick from the water. She scoured the dirt off her arms and shins and washed the thing layer of dirt from her face. She even washed the dust taste from her mouth and the grit from between her teeth. She shook to dry off and pulled her shirt on. It was still slightly dusty and the finer, remaining dust clung to her moist skin. It least it looked like she naturally sweated and became dusty instead of taking a nasty fall from the horse. She picked her pants up.

Taurus had his arms crossed and was looking out into the pastures with his familiar crossed look on his face. He never understood why Rachel did not trust him in matters such as that. Peek? At her? Honestly the nerve of that human sometimes…

"EEEEPPP!"

It was Rachel. Taurus rushed over to the stream.

"Miss Wesley! What is it?" he asked.

"There was a frog in my pants," Rachel exclaimed. In one hand she held her pants up, in the other, a fat leopard frog.

Taurus smiled. "Now that is funny, Rachel."


	10. Down on the Farm Part 2

_Lotta fan service in this update…_

_We all need to have a little fun now and then…even Taurus. ;)_

_I've made some changes in other chapters BTW. _

_Sorry for the long time it took to update, but this chapter is huge. Enjoy!_

**Down on the Farm **

**Part 2**

_In the back room of the New Olympus Security Center…_

Talos had the innards of an older wavecatcher (radio) spread out across the desk. New parts were off to his left elbow. Talos managed to construct the materials necessary to hybridize a normal wavecatcher to pick up varying radio signals from the human world. The parts were simple to make, but finding a wavecatcher to manipulate, was another story. The one wavecatcher they did find was too small for the parts as well as being made too recently to contain the necessary tubes. They needed an older, blockier model, since the older models were more capable of picking up transmissions farther away than newer ones. There was on in the janitor's closet, but the janitor refused to sacrifice his wavecatcher (it was the only one he had ever owned that perfectly rested on his mop and bucket and was his favorite color). Ahka said he knew exactly where to find one of that particular description and left on his mission. Two minutes later after Ahka left, Talos sent Rion out, figuring the minotaur would have much better luck than the Cecropian.

Forty-five minutes later Ahka returned with the desired wavecatcher, holding it up like a beacon. Orion returned empty handed. Since everything or most things are recycled in New Olympus, finding an old wavecatcher, even in pawnshops, proved fruitless.

Now, an hour later, Talos refitted the wavecatcher with new innards and a new antenna. With the final screw in place, the wavecatcher began to buzz. There was only static. Talos slowly turned the dial. Voices weakly came in, mingled with static. Both Ahka and Rion had to lean over to pick up the voices.

"I can't understand them," Rion said. "Try another frequency."

The dial was turned.

_It's the bottom of the ninth…all bases are loaded _

"This sounds boring," Ahka immediately whined.

"I do agree," Rion added. The dial was twisted again.

_If you wanna be my lover you gotta get my friends…_

"Dear gods, I've never heard anything so horrible in my life," Rion exclaimed. "I don't think I can concentrate and write at the same time with _that _playing."

"I dunno, that's pretty catchy lyrics," Ahka quickly stated.

"Start singing and I'm gonna cram this down your windpipe," Rion threatened, holding up a thumb size recorder. He recorded a few lines of the lyrics to play back to Boreas later. Talos, somewhat slowly changed the frequency. His AI could not distinguish between good and bad music and the irritation level of pop icons, even of those in his own nation let alone those of another nation.

The music of the next station was so loud, so offensive, so full of bass that wavecatcher nearly tumbled off the table. The lyrics were heavily garbled. Rion thought he heard something about gardening equipment and culinary equipment—hoes and grills. Rion took a sample of the music as he wrote down. Ahka bobbed his head along with the music while all of Talos's processors worked to slow down and translate the lyrics.

"New station," Rion said. Talos turned the dial.

_Hit me baby one more time…_

"Hey, it's the chick with the enormous forehead!" Ahka exclaimed. "Seriously."

"Hmm," Rion thought and began to take down notes. This music was just a little below his tolerance level…just a little bit.

"It doesn't seem like much without the video," Ahka observed. "Without her up there singing and dancing—the song's kinda annoying and sounds stupid."

"Hmm," Rion said and wrote down that note. They listened to the song in its entirety, then switched the station over after a local commercial came on about a liquidation sell on mattresses.

A dozen songs came and gone in a variety of different languages and beats, and three times the commercials (all spoken with the same amount of passionate emotion as the songs), and at least two sports games spoken by announcers with varying amount of zest.

"Human music is boring!" Ahka said. His entire upper body was stretched out across the table and his head rested in his arms. "Can we watch the screen again? I wanna see _Who Wants to Marry the Most Dangerous Rap Star—_or something along the lines of that title, they all sounded the same to me."

"Next frequency please, Talos," Rion asked.

_Are you gonna take me home tonight? _

_Ah beside that red firelight,_

_Are you gonna let it all hang out?_

_Fat bottom girls you make the rocking world go round. _

"Wow!" Ahka exclaimed. "This is pretty good. Catchy lyrics!"

"Don't start singing," Rion warned.

"Oh," Ahka said downtrodden.

"At least the beat is catchy," Rion said tapping his fingers on the table.

&&&

_The Next Day…_

Rachel left again for home early the morning, very early in the morning. Taurus woke early that the day before (though not as early as Rachel) and helped Charlie do the same chores as the day before and build a new, stronger pen for the pigs. The prospect of working with wood and primitive tools appealed to Taurus, though the tools were too small for his hands, and the jig saw was down right imposing in set up and sound. Charlie handled the tools; Taurus handled the heavier, more manual labor, and added his own comments to build a new, more competent pig sty. They made an excellent team, and the result was an excellent pigpen…a damn good pigpen as Charlie put it.

Charlie introduced Taurus to another country tradition, a cold beer from the icebox, after a hard job. Taurus enjoyed the concept, not so much the beer, but after a few moments, even that became palatable, now that the true heat of the sun was becoming apparent.

"So how did you and my granddaughter meet?" Charlie asked.

"Miss Wesley and I met the alleyway behind her place of business. She had a book of great interest to me in her possession. I borrowed it, and upon returning Miss Wesley offered to illustrate the human world for me," Taurus explained.

"Huh, is that so?" Charlie said, looking out into the fields. "You're a good man Taurus. Despite being part cow…you know…that's something I've gotta get use to."

"Um…thank you Charlie," Taurus stated.

"After all those other SOB boyfriends Rachel has had, it's nice she's finally found a good person," Charlie said. Taurus was silent for a moment, and he looked down at the mouth of his beer. His ears flicked.

"I do not mean to rude, Charlie, but if you are suggesting that Miss Wesley and I are lovers, then you are gravely mistaken. We are merely acquaintances," Taurus stated.

"Oh…." Charlie said, looked off to the side, "I just sorta suspected..."

There was an odd silence between the two, born out of embarrassment on both sides. Charlie scratched behind his head, Taurus kicked at the dust.

"You know she just seemed very fond of you," Charlie explained rapidly. "I've never seen her that kinda happy in years. She's sounded very happy on the phone, I just haven't seen it. It's probably college."

"Yes," Taurus stated, "it is college."

&&&

_Later that day_

"Taurus!" Rachel called out from the barn! "I have something you have to see!"

The minotaur, laying out on the porch, immediately pricked up, not exactly picked himself up, but his ears pricked up and he raised his head, looking between his knees at Rachel, who stood at the barn door.

"Hurry up!" she gestured. Groggily, Taurus sat upwards.

"Miss Wesley, can't it wait?" Taurus asked.

"No," Rachel said, "hurry up or you're going to miss it."

"Rachel, just how important is it? I do not feel like doing anything currently," Taurus stated, leaning back onto the deck. He put his hand on his forehead. From the barn, he heard a sniff, and then the doors slid shut. Taurus's mind told him he should not have given Rachel that tone, but his body and the more primitive parts of his mind, begged him to remain lying on the porch. Taurus decided to concede to that desire for now.

There was a lengthy howl from the barn. Immediately Taurus's desires were forgotten, as years of training sent his body into instant preparation for action.

"TAAAAAARUUUUUUSSS!"

That sent Taurus reeling towards the barn, completely he forgot about his fatigue.

"I need your help!"

That sent a shot of adrenaline into his system.

Taurus slid the barn doors open. "Rachel, what's…wrong?"

Towards the back, Rachel stood, her hands appeared to be shoved up a cow's rear. The cow was panting and foaming, its sides trembled. It was struggling, kicking, trying to get away from Rachel.

"It's a breech Taurus!" Rachel exclaimed.

"Breech?" Taurus said, suddenly becoming aware that Rachel was holding onto a tiny pair of black hooves. The oddity of the scene became heavy with apprehension and a completely new form of confusion.

Taurus attempted to maintain an air of control over his two…correction three…companions. He succeeded almost 90 percent.

"Rachel, what do I need to do?" Taurus asked. There was a hint of nervousness to his voice, about ten percent more.

"I need you to hold her still!" Rachel said. The cow lurched back. Rachel slid, letting go of the calf's legs. "Just hold her head still!"

Uneasily, Taurus approached the distressed cow and quickly tackled her, holding her butting head still. The cow still struggled, however, not nearly as much. She lowed lightly, her head tucked between Taurus's brawny arms. Rachel quickly darted away to a pile of hay and picked up a rope. For several precious seconds she fiddled behind the cow. Carefully, Rachel stepped back, holding a length of the rope in her hands. Gritting her teeth, she pulled. The cow lowed even louder. Taurus startled, loosening his grip on her head.

"Hold her still Taurus!" Rachel commanded. She tugged even harder on the ropes.

There was a splash of fluid on the ground. A pair of hind legs hung out limply. Taking the legs in her hands Rachel proceeded to yank and pull at the calf's hindquarter. Rachel swore under her breath. The cow lowed softly and began to kneel. Rachel swore again.

"Keep her up Taurus! She'll crush the calf!" Rachel ordered.

Taurus tugged upwards. The cow mooed irritably and stood up, giving him a slight butt with her head. Rachel dug her heels into the ground and heaved with all her might. The calf's hips appeared. Rachel repositioned her hands on the calf and with renewed effort began to pull. Soon the calf's abdomen slid out. The cow mooed and kicked back. Rachel reeled out of the way to avoid the strike, landing as usual and with the usual amount of grace on her rear. With a shuttering moo and trembling sides, the cow finished Rachel's job with a thump and splash. Taurus immediately let go of the cow's head and approached the scene with a face half apprehension half disgust. The cow, somewhat relieved, turned, her massive body nearly driving Taurus into the barn wall.

"Taurus, toss me that towel," Rachel gestured. Taurus threw a soft, worn towel over the cow. He could not see what was happening since the cow blocked his view.

Rachel rubbed the fluid from calf's fur in a circular motion, both drying it and easing the shock of being outside of its snug, warm womb. Taurus slowly inched towards the two. The calf stumbled upwards on quaking legs. The mother tentatively licked at its head, nearly flipping the little calf over. Ungainly the calf pawed over to its mother, whose continual cleaning did little more than hamper it. Finally it reached her udder and began to nurse. Taurus towered over the scene for a silent moment.

"It's a boy?" Taurus asked. He paused, looking at something, "Right?"

"That's the umbilical cord," Rachel said, then leaned over. "It is a boy though."

From between the hay bales, Rachel removed a kit. Returning to the calf, she fished out few utensils. Taurus sat down watching Rachel with curiosity. Rachel snatched the calf away from his mother. Forcefully Rachel tilted his head up and suctioned his nostrils, all the while the calf violently struggling. She clamped the umbilical cord, to protect against infection and swabbed the calf's ears. When she was done, the somewhat irritated and slightly traumatized calf clamored back to his mother. Rachel gathered the kit and placed it back in the corner. She sat down beside Taurus.

"I thank for you the experience Rachel," Taurus stated as she rolled the legs of her pants up, "but I find myself very perplexed over why everyone tells me that birth is beautiful. Truth is I find it greatly reminds me of a particularly gory crime scene, or one of those horror movies you always seem have at hand. I have sympathy for all the mothers out there in the world."

_Especially my own…_

Rachel chuckled, pulling up her other leg. "It's not pretty, but I guess when it's your kid, it is beautiful. And even if its not, you know, life is beautiful."

"Miss Wesley…Rachel…is this why you became a veterinarian?" Taurus asked.

"Sorta, after changing my major three times, I finally realized that this might be the thing for me…oh damn," Rachel swore halfway pulling her pants up to her right knee. "She really nailed me."

"Here, let me see that," Taurus stated climbing off of his seat. He pushed Rachel's hands away. In one hand he supported the heel of her foot in the palm of his right hand. With his middle/pointer finger, he lightly pressed into the flesh of Rachel's shin. He explained to her, "In New Olympus it is mandatory that all security personnel receive training in first aid."

"Taurus, that hurts," Rachel said.

"That means there is a hairline fracture," Taurus stated as he examined the bruise.

"No, no, you're just pressing too hard," Rachel stated. Taurus immediately released her.

"Rachel, I didn't mean to hurt you," Taurus stated. Rachel rolled her pant legs down.

"Hey, that's okay, Taurus," Rachel sat, as she put a hand on his shoulder. She kneeled down beside him. "It's the thought that counts. But I'll be fine; if it turns out I have a hairline fracture, I owe you a Coke."

"Whatever that is," Taurus stated.

"It's just an expression," Rachel chuckled, leaning into him.

"Miss Wesley," Taurus stated, "you're a bit of a mess. Perhaps for your benefit, you may want to clean up."

"Oh," Rachel said, becoming very self conscious of the muck and straw on her pants and shoes. "Yeah, you're right."

Rachel stood up and walked to house. Taurus slowly followed. A part of himself told him that there was something more bruised than just a shin.

&&&

"Hi Rae, are you not feelin' too well?" Charlie asked as his granddaughter filled a tall glass at the sink. A box of Alka-Seltzer sat on the counter. He placed two brown paper bags; both the green husks of corn poking pass the serrated edges of the bags. The smell of the fields spread through the kitchen.

"It's for Taurus, he's out on the back porch" Rachel answered, opening a blue packet. "One the cows had a calf today."

"Really? A little boy or a little girl?" he asked.

"A little boy," Rachel said, adding another pack. "It was a breech, but Taurus and I were able to deliver it."

"Weren't you wearing a different outfit earlier?" Charlie observed.

"I had to change. It got sorta messy," Rachel stated before leaving the kitchen. Charlie picked up the bags went out to the porch as well.

Taurus sat on the edge of the porch, elbows on his knees, hands hanging down between his legs, staring off into distance. Rachel rattled the glass beside his head.

"Thank you Rachel," Taurus said, taking the down the contents of the glass in one draught. He grimaced at the taste of the liquid. Rachel plopped down beside him.

Charlie soon came out onto the porch with the two bags of corn. "How do you feel like husking corn for dinner tonight?"

"Sounds great, Grandpa," Rachel said.

"I have never husked corn before, but I am willing to try it," Taurus stated.

"Heh?" Charlie said, before setting both heavy bags and an empty cake pan beside Rachel.

"It's quite easily, Taurus," Rachel said handing him an ear. She took the green leaves in her hand, "you just peel these leaves off...like this…unh…then you break off the stem…ta dah!"

She held up an ear. "See? Now you just have to pick off silk."

"I see," Taurus stated. With no effort, he removed the husks. However, when snapping the stem off, he was in for a nasty surprise. "Eck!"

He snapped the corncob in half and crushed the kernels into creamed corn. Rachel chuckled and leaned over him and pulled a chunk of silk off his palm.

"How about you peel and I snap the steams and pick off the silk?" Rachel offered, pointing to him with an ear of corn.

"I can agree to that," Taurus said.

Taurus peeled faster than Rachel worked, but there was still a significant amount of corn ready for the pot when Charlie came out. By the time the remaining of the ears were cleaned and ready for the pot themselves, Charlie came out with a steaming plate of corn.

With loud crunches Rachel and Charlie bit into their cobs. Taurus bit into his ear with an equally loud crunch. He found corn oddly satisfying, a mixture of crunchy and sweetness, and the butter and sauce perfectly accenting it. Rachel and Charlie easily handled their cobs. Taurus spent a few seconds watching Rachel and Charlie to learn the mannerisms to handling an ear of corn. He still found it a bit unwieldy and several times bit into the hard cob. By his third ear, he mastered the movements and was able to eat without dropping the ear.

"That was quite delicious," Taurus said. He rubbed the butter from his face on his forearm, "Albeit a bit messy."

"That's why it's eaten on the porch," Charlie said, cleaning his face. "The best damn part of summer."

"I fully agree," Taurus stated, licking his lips. "I can get accustomed to these sorts of human customs."

&&&

Rachel went to Wal-Mart to do some shopping. She needed computer paper for her report and Charlie need a few items he had forgotten to buy while he was in town earlier.

Taurus and Charlie sat in the living room, with an ottoman in between them as a table, with a baseball game on the television with mute on, and music playing on the radio. Charlie was attempting to teach Taurus how to play poker, with some luck. At first, Taurus was a slow player, but his skills of memory and deduction were incredible, and soon he easily beat Charlie at every game…before asking if there rules about seeing another player's cards. Even sitting down on the love seat (which his massive form nearly covered), Taurus towered over Charlie, and he could easily see his hand. With some slight alterations (i.e. Taurus sitting on the floor) they were on the right track again, and Charlie regained his glory.

"I'm home," Rachel said. The screen door rattled. Rachel tossed the bags on the table. "I'll be upstairs studying."

She strolled past them…quite quickly…and rushed up the stairs.

"Is something wrong, Miss Wesley?" Taurus asked. Rachel paused.

"I'm good, just need to get back to studying," she said. She took two steps up the stairs.

"I'm teaching your friend here how to play cards," Charlie stated.

"That's good, you enjoying it Taurus?" Rachel asked warmly.

"It is…quite fun actually," Taurus stated.

"That's good," Rachel said and disappeared.

"Ready to get your butt kicked again?" Charlie asked Taurus. His eyes remained on the stairs.

"If you say so Charlie," Taurus responded. In a stern tone he said, "Hit me."

&&&

It was around one in the morning when Taurus heard the steps of someone down the hallway. It was unmistakable. Sleepily, he opened his eyes and looked out the door. The door was opened just a crack. Taurus saw a figure walked pass the door. It was Rachel. At first, he assumed she was merely walking to the restroom, but she was not wearing her pajamas, but a pair of jeans and an oversized sweatshirt. She had a book tucked under her arm.

_She's studying…_he mumbled and attempted to doze off.

His body, however, was content with the three hours of heavy sleep he received. After a few foggy moments, his mind as well was content. A very awake Taurus now lay in bed. He heard the crunch of gravel outside, very lightly. He stood up, fearing someone was sneaking towards the house…but then he realized someone was sneaking away from the house. Taurus walked to the window. Looking out he saw the form of Rachel, it could be no one else but her, walking up to the barn with a flashlight illuminating her path. The barn door opened then it closed. The barn was dark. Then hayloft lit up.

Taurus returned to the beds. He put his hands behind his head and just looked at the ceiling. But he couldn't fall asleep…no…he couldn't. He was very, very much awake, so much so that sleep was not an optional. It was simply pointless to lay and still at the ceiling until the wee hours of the mourning…it felt like that anyway. Maybe he could watch some television…infomercials…that should put him to sleep…unless that one involving the double sided pancake flipper was on…than there wasn't a chance he was going to sleep soon. He hadn't the heart to ask Rachel if she knew how to come into possession of one.

Taurus descended down the stairs. He was forced to squint his eyes because of the bluish glow of the television step. Charlie was awake. Taurus paused, used his hand as a shield from the light, and clamored down the steps.

"She's outside," Charie said. "Up in the hayloft most likely."

"Huh?" Taurus murmured.

"She's out in the hayloft," Charlie answered. "Didn't say anything when she came down here, just looked at me, and walked out."

"Oh," Taurus said.

He didn't know honestly what to do. Charlie was scant on his details, and Rachel, for once, was not present. He did not even know why he came downstairs, perhaps, he was sleepier or more sleep muddled than he thought. He didn't realize this until he felt the bite of early-early morning air and the somewhat annoying wet beads of dew on the skin above his hooves. He stumbled up the gravel…it smelt of earth and moisture with each step, with each grind of limestone on limestone. It was unnerving walking the few feet to the barn…the cows were quiet, oddly enough. The sky was pitch black, and the trees even blacker, and only a few stars shined in the sky…and Taurus felt oddly alone and very small. Then he saw the cracks of yellow in the barn door, and felt comfort at the sight of a few specks of orange-yellow light.

He opened the barn door. It almost like entering another world, and it too, despite its clutter, its smoky warmth, its light, and woodiness, appeared empty as well.

"Miss Wesley?" Taurus loudly asked.

"I'm up here Taurus," Rachel answered in her typical tone. She was in the hayloft, just as Charlie said. Taurus walked around to get a better view of her. She was sitting between the spaces of two large piles of bales of hay, right where Charlie stood as he passed bales of hay down to Taurus earlier the day before. She had a fleece blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a bale of hay set up before her like a desk. He could see at least three barn cats stalking around the bales and a fourth one was curled up contentedly on her lap.

Taurus put both his hands on his hips and in an authoritarian tone asked, "Miss Wesley may I ask what are you are doing out here at this hour of the morning?"

"Studying," Rachel answered as did the flicking of pages.

"Studying?" Taurus asked.

"Mmm hmm," Rachel answered busily. Nothing else was said. The wood of the ladder groaned. Then another groan…and another, until finally a grey arm appeared and a very, very nervous Taurus pulled himself up onto the loft…quite quickly. He looked down at the ground.

"That, Miss Wesley…was not enjoyable in the least bit," Taurus stated.

"You didn't have to come up," Rachel responded.

"Your grandfather said you were up here, and you were upset," Taurus finding a spot to sit down. Almost immediately a cat paw reached out of the hay bale and swatted at his hair.

"It would figure he'd say something like that," Rachel answered.

"Why would he say that?" Taurus asked.

"He's my grandpa…duh," Rachel answered. "He cares and gets worried about me. He's family."

"So is something wrong then?" Taurus asked.

"Nope, good," Rachel answered. She flipped through her book. "Good as ever."

"Oh," Taurus said. "Then it was pointless to come up here?"

"No," Rachel answered. "I mean, if you think it was pointless to come up here, than it was. I wouldn't mind if you stayed, we haven't really 'hung out'."

Taurus paused for a moment, glanced over Rachel's shoulder at the rickety, too narrow ladder, and opted for the former. He settled back into the hay bales. "I supposed I could stay for a few moments. I cannot fall asleep anyway."

"Okay," Rachel said.

"So what are you studying for Miss Wesley?" Taurus asked.

"Animal anatomy," Rachel answered. "It's my second time taking the course."

"Oh," Taurus said, glancing over her shoulder at the papers. "I hope you pass."

"Me too," Rachel answered. She looked over to Taurus for the first time that night, "Thanks."

It was quiet again, with the exception of Rachel's pencil scratches. Taurus leaned over to watch her.

"So tell, Rachel," Taurus asked. "Why do you come here?"

"Huh?" Rachel said slightly startled.

"Up here, why is it you came up here?" Taurus asked. "Why do you keep coming here?"

"What are you talking about?" Rachel asked.

Taurus pointed to the wall. The boards here were smooth, worn from use, unlike the other boards…the use was obvious, and they were bright and shiny from fingertips. Crayon, pencil, pen, marker, left scores on the smooth wood. Faded pictures, articles, still hung up. "I can tell Rachel, that this is some sort of hiding place for you."

"It's sorta my secret hiding place," Rachel admitted embarrassedly, shutting her school book. "I never had a tree house or a club house like most kids…this was it for me."

"I had none of that as a child," Taurus answered, crawling over closer to the wall to get a better look. Rachel followed behind him. He traced one of the silly crayon drawings from when Rachel was five years old. "You are very lucky to have such a place to go to."

Taurus sat down at the wall. Rachel sat across from him, and then she moved and sat beside him. She scooted over so that she pressed right into his side. _She's cold_, Taurus thought. Rachel had opened the doors, where the bales of hay were loaded in during the fall. She should have remembered the blanket. Taurus set his arm on the other side of her.

"So, what was it like when you were a kid?" Rachel asked chewing on her fingernail.

"Not very different from any child out there," Taurus answered, glancing at the wall.

"Oh," Rachel said.

"Who's Rodney?"

"Huh? Oh…an ex-boyfriend," Rachel answered.

"Arley?"

"Another."

"James?"

"Another."

Taurus squinted at the wall. "Kevin…Rocks?"

"My little brother," Rachel answered.

"But isn't your last name Wesley?" Taurus asked. Rachel laughed and punched him in the side. "Oh."

Rachel brought her knees up to the chest. Suddenly Taurus felt her weight against his side. Taurus was very warm to Rachel. "Mmmm."

Taurus rolled his eyes.

"I saw my old boyfriend by the way," she softly stated, "at Wal-Mart today."

"I knew something was up," Taurus stated. Rachel looked at the ladder for a moment.

"Which one?" Taurus asked.

"Rodney," Rachel answered.

"Tell me, what happened, Rachel?" Taurus asked.

"Nothing…"

"Miss Wesley, for you to be sneaking up here in the middle of the night something had to have happened…"

"Nothing happened recently," Rachel snappishly responded. She turned, allowing her weight to rest on the hay. "How do you think you'll feel if something from your past suddenly snuck up on you?"

Taurus scratched his chin. "I am not sure Miss Wesley. I suppose taking into the atmosphere of the encounter and the history of the affiliation would affect the outcome."

"I have positively no clue what you said…"

"I guess it all depends on how things were then and now," Taurus stated. "Your relationship…with this Rodney…I supposed it did not end on a…good note?"

"Why are you asking?" Rachel grumbled. "It's not something I want to talk about. I was stupid back then."

"Miss Wesley!" Taurus stated. She felt his hand on her shoulder. "Stupid is not an appropriate term to describe yourself."

"You can say that now. You can say that," Rachel stated. She stretched herself out. "**You **can say that. Everyone else thinks I'm an idiot."

"Miss Wesley, I am not sure of your past activities, but you are a good person and I believe you have had made excellent progress in comparison to what people may think of you," Taurus stated.

"Yeah," Rachel stated. "A lot of people still think I'm the bad girl."

"Bad girl, Miss Wesley?" Taurus asked. "I find that quite difficult to comprehend. Is it something you wish to discuss with me?"

"No, not really," Rachel answered. She pulled herself up. She picked the hay from her hair. She played with a piece between her finger tips, only focusing on that piece. "Rodney was my first boyfriend…the typical tragic first…we met when I was eleven. He was thirteen. In just a few months…boom, everything changes. Lifestyle, ideas, fashion, your family life, what other people think of you. Next thing I know I'm dropping out of ballet class and smoking behind the school. I can't smoke a cigarette, personally, they made me sick to my stomach, but you know, just standing there…holding one. It feels cool for an eleven year old…hanging out with teenagers. I still can't smoke a cigarette, and they're even more sickening than ever. Skipping school was next and basically dropping any outside initiatives I had soon followed. _Books, ballet, horse back riding, those things_ didn't matter anymore. He convinced me those things didn't matter. People began to talk, and I felt that they didn't matter. They just singled me out because I chose to be different and that I thought I was happy and free. Was I wrong."

Rachel sat Indian style, but turned so that her back was towards Taurus. "I did horrible in school. Frankly, I'm surprised I didn't get held back. I used to be really, really good in school prior to that. I won all these awards in grade school…they don't mean much…but I won a lot of them because I was such a good student and learner. Well that didn't matter with Rodney. So I didn't pay attention in class, didn't turn in homework let alone actually do it. I couldn't wait until the day was over so I could go and hang out with Rodney. If the day went to slow, I skipped out and hung out all day with Rodney. I wasn't just missing things at school; I was missing things at home too. I wasn't even home when my grandmother died. I was out with Rodney. I came home, no one was in the house, and I just went to bed. I found out the next morning she passed away. Dammit Taurus, I was stupid!"

"Miss Wesley," Taurus stated. He licked his lips and looked at the window. "You did get common sense eventually."

"Yes," Rachel responded. She changed her position again so that one leg was stretched out and her hand resting on her other leg. "Fifteen I finally realized I need to get back on track. I ditched Rodney and went back into school. It was a hard transition. Things weren't as easy as they were in grade school. I was way behind in a lot of stuff. I had to take summer school and had mentors for every class. By my senior year I was in the top third of the graduation class. Pretty good for someone who was in the bottom of class just a few years before."

"I am glad to hear that Miss Wesley. And this Rodney?"

"Dropped out when he was sixteen," Rachel responded. "I dumped him, and the guy…well, the guy totally flipped. Verbal threats, then angry outbursts, and finally telling me how my life is ruined with out him then how my life is already too screwed for me to handle by myself….the entire shebang."

"And I guess he was proven wrong then, Miss Wesley."

Rachel responded. "The next day he was with some fourteen-year-old. Yeah, I saw both of them. Four kids Taurus…four kids! He saw me first, and actually came out to talk to me. I didn't recognize him at first…he looked…well….older than before. He acted like we were the best of friends, and was very interested in where I was staying, wanted to get back together or just have one more _night out_, you know what he wanted, wanted to know how college was treating me and what I thought of the town now that I was a 'college student in New York City". I turned him down and managed to get away then I saw him with the girl. She had four kids in her cart and he was talking all sweet to her as if nothing had happened. I overheard him mention about 'a slut' he dated years ago. To make matters worse, Taurus as I walked away down those isles feeling angry, I overheard two old women—two women I don't know—wondering if I'm that 'Wesley Girl'."

Rachel buried her face in her hands. She sniffled loudly. "Oh, I am such a stupid idiot…"

Taurus grumbled and breathed heavily out of his nostrils. Now Rachel felt even worse. She felt a sudden weight across her shoulders. Taurus looked out the window.

"Rachel," Taurus stated. He scratched his chin, and looked at the floor boards, attempting to say something.

"I didn't mean to make an idiot out of myself like that Taurus," Rachel softly stated. Taurus felt both of her arms go around him, and she rested her head against his side. His arm was now stretched along the length of her curled up body. "I was stupid, I got over it. I shouldn't have let that get to me, and even more let that get to you. You know you're my friend."

"Many times I find myself very often aware of that, Miss Wesley…Rachel," Taurus stated, acknowledging the warmth at his side…but not disparaging it.

"You're a very good friend," Rachel stated.

It was quiet. "So are you, Miss Wesley."

"Mmm," Rachel answered. "You've never really told me much about your own history Taurus. I scarcely know anything about you. You could literally write a book on me."

"Well," Taurus stated, scratching at his chin again. "It's something I do not wish to discuss Miss Wesley. I think it's something you…"

"Should not worry about or involve yourself in," Rachel finished as she sat up.

"You nearly took that word for word from my mouth," Taurus stated.

"You could write a book about me, and I can read you like a book," Rachel retorted.

"Then I suppose we are even then," Taurus responded.

Rachel leaned against him, legs stretched to the ladder. "If you want to call it that."

She heard Taurus sigh and his chest heaved.

"I am not sure if I should converse with you on matters such as this, Rachel," Taurus stated suddenly in a very strict tone…though his face spoke of some different.

"Mmm hmm," Rachel responded, pulling his arm across her lap like a blanket. Her fingers ran over his much larger fingers. She softly spoke, "You're very comfy…"

"That is the first time I every heard words such as that, Miss Wesley…Rachel?" Taurus stated, nearly jolting when he realized for the _second time_ the human had easily fallen asleep on _him_! Her arms were wrapped around his bicep, holding it in place for a pillow. The side her face was snuggled into his fur. Her body was too limp, too settled for her to be faking it. He poked her with his other hand, just to be sure.

She was sound asleep.

One the barn cats from up above in the haystacks crawled down onto his shoulder…and immediately slid off the armor into his lap, and off of his lap onto the ground in between his legs. The cat looked up from between Taurus's knees.

"Make yourself comfortable," Taurus sympathized with the embarrassed cat.

&&&

Rachel was woken up by her body that morning; her body naturally revitalized by a night's rest. Taurus was awoken naturally as well—albeit it was the red-orange blaze of the sun in his eye. Rachel was only awake for a few moments and was somewhat ungracefully crawling over on all fours to the ladder, her eyes still somewhat squinted. Taurus was shaking himself from the position he stayed in during the sleep. It was Rachel's grandfather walking up the ladder who fully woke them up from the morning stupor.

"What the hell?"

Rachel nearly fell over the edge.

"Hi Granpa," she said.

"What were you two doing up here?"

"Slee—" Rachel started.

"Miss Wesley fell asleep on me during a discussion about her life on the farm," Taurus answered back. He stood up and brushed the straw from his legs. He did not look like someone who just woke up. "I feel that the excitement of returning home has been too much for her. Would you like me to start tossing the bales of hay down Charlie?"

Charlie did not answer…in fact he looked plain confused. He shrugged and descended back down the ladder. "Sure."

&&&

Rachel went home for only an hour that morning and returned with a six inch thick folder—her report. Rachel set the heavy folder on the table. The empty dishes rattled. Taurus looked incredulously at the folder.

"That is your report Rachel?"

"Yep, first draft, second draft, third draft, a double spaced copy, a single spaced copy, a double spaced copy with extra spaces between the paragraphs, a single spaced copy with the spaces between each paragraph and a copy of each copy, my works cited, and photo copies of my resources," Rachel answered.

Taurus blinked.

"You have been very studious," Taurus answered.

"Thanks," Rachel answered and walked to the cupboards to get a glass of water. She sat down beside Taurus. The folder was in between them. Taurus kept noticing Rachel turning her head slightly, perhaps at the folder. She cocked an eyebrow and squinted her face, then her face would twist to normal, then squint again. She glanced over at Taurus then quickly looked over at the cupboards, chewing on her bottom lip.

"Miss Wesley, what do you find so amusing?" Taurus demanded.

"Nothing, I'll be right back," Rachel stated standing up and quickly leaving. Her glass, sweating, sat on the table, she only took a few sips of water.

Charlie entered from the porch.

"Phew! What smells like an overworked mule?" he exclaimed swatting at the air.

&&&

In a huff and agitated, uncomfortable state of mind, Rachel leaned over the tub and twisted on the hot spigot. Cold water at first poured out into the bucket, and then steam began to arise. Stupidly, to test the water, Rachel placed her entire hand in the bucket.

"Ah!" she exclaimed yanking her red hand from the steaming water. "Damn! I shouldn't have done that."

She turned on the cold tap. The amount of steam pouring from the bucket greatly subsided. Rachel placed a finger in the water. "Decent."

She carried the bucket down the hallway and out the door, only splashing once when her foot banged into the door frame. Charlie was sitting on the porch swing and watched her struggle with the bucket down the porch steps.

"Scrub him real good now Rae!" he offered with a hearty chuckle.

"Oh ha-ha!" Rachel answered looking over her shoulder and nearly spilled the bucket again when she turned.

"Now don't drop it now honey," Charlie answered with a laugh. Rachel spared him another glance and struggled to the barn.

&&&

Taurus sat in the massive tin tub with a foot of cold hose water, his ears flicking the gnats away. The tub was used to apply skin medications to calves to protect them against blowflies and other pests. It smelt heavily of said medication. Charlie insisted the tub would not harm Taurus in any way other than making the bull human hybrid less susceptible to the many predatory creepy crawlies that prowled the farm yard. These creepy crawlies found Taurus, the hybrid of two of their favorite food items, irresistible. Though all three (Charlie, Rachel, and Taurus) were too polite to admit it, Taurus always managed to have the largest swarm of flies around his head. Taurus tried to blame that on his previous condition...though the flies that pestered him currently were proving that hypothesis incorrect.

Rachel's grandfather did not own a shower and the tiny, antique bathtub was out of the question. Taurus could not fit in it if his life depended on it, and his hooves scuffing up the porcelain was another issue. But Charlie was innovative and had other options to offer the Minotaur, albeit it was the price of his dignity.

The barn door slide open, just a crack. Taurus heard no foot steps.

"You could have told me Miss Wesley that my body odor was offensive," Taurus stated not looking back.

"I could have Taurus, but I have a tendency of not pointing out people's personal hygiene," Rachel stated. "Besides, both Granpa and I know you're a fairly clean guy. I didn't know you could possibly smell _that bad that fast_."

"Miss Wesley I believe I offended your grandfather by not properly grooming myself, if you had given me earlier WARNING! RACHEL!" Taurus exclaimed as a shot of cold water hit him straight in the back.

"Be quiet or I'll do it again," Rachel stated. She was holding the hose like gun; exactly like one of the mobsters in the human movies. Her other hand was weighed down with something, Taurus could not maneuver enough in the tub to see exactly what it was. He could surmise it was heavy her shoulder was tilted downward.

Taurus grumbled and glanced back down into the grey tinged water.

"You smell better," Rachel observed.

"Thanks, it's…Old Spice," Taurus stated, looking his shoulder at her. "Your grandfather was kind enough to lend it to me…in our time of need."

He stated the ending blandly. Rachel laughed and sat down on a hay bale right beside him. "It suits you…even though it is an old person's cologne."

"I appreciate that comment Miss Wesley," Taurus stated dryly. "Do you mind? Aren't you concerned with flesh?"

"A little, but I should not have to be so squeamish about nudity. You're culture isn't, and I should respect that," Rachel answered. "Just don't stand up okay?"

Taurus chuckled. "Well if I want to get you to leave, then I will know what to do."

"You want me to leave?"

"I am fine with whatever you choose to do," he answered. "If you do choose to stay, I have a favor to ask of you, could you scrub my back for me? I can not reach it otherwise I would have done it myself. There is a need to be presentable before your grandfather."

There was a pause.

"Rachel if you are uncomfortable with my request, I fully understand," Taurus stated. "I am sorry I asked such an absurd question."

"Oh would you cut that out!" Rachel retorted. Taurus suddenly felt a pair of hands on his back. "I'm only doing this to show you I can do it! WITHOUT FREAKING OUT!"

Taurus chuckled in response. He felt Rachel's nails prick his skin. She was very unwilling to begin. "Would you like the wash cloth Miss Wesley?"

She snatched it off him. "You owe me Taurus."

"Miss Wesley you just said seconds early you did this at your own accord," Taurus responded.

Rachel grumbled.

Taurus's ears flicked when he felt her hands down his back. She worked slowly, deliberately and for a moment Taurus wondered what she was trying to do. His ears flicked back when he heard her voice…

"Rhomboideus major…trapezius…latissimus dorsi…" she recalled in whispers as she traced ever muscle formation visible on his back, her fingers firmly pressing into and tracing the structures. Taurus closed his eyes, listening to her voice. Her fingers gently pressed into the gunshot wound, just a mere shimmer of grey skin.

"It healed well…and fast," she said, tracing the thin patch of wrinkly skin. It felt unbelievably different from his rough fur.

"We…New Olympians heal much faster, I presume, than you humans," Taurus responded. "As well our medical system is much more evolved that yours…but, if it was not for you Rachel, I supposed it would look much worse."

"Thanks," she quietly responded.

Her fingers pressed into his spine. "Cervical vertebrae…" She began to count the vertebrae. "Thoracic vertebrae…" She began to count each individual vertebrae downwards, until the tub, and common decency (though it may have been more along the lines of the embarrassment she felt over the absurdity of the situation, and just how it may be crossing the lines of their friendship) would not allow her to go no more. "Done!"

Taurus snorted and a deluge of water—warm water!—was poured over his head. Taurus began to cough. Rachel chuckled. That made her feel a lot better…

"Miss Wesley! That water was warm!" Taurus exclaimed. The cold water felt even colder. His knees began to knock together and every individual hair was standing up on body.

"Well if you weren't in such a hurry Taurus to get clean I would have filled the tub with hot water," Rachel responded.

"Miss Wesley it was out of respect for me to get cleaned as soon as possible," Taurus stated. "Please hand me the towel so as to end this embarrassing conversation."

"You know if I was feeling like a jerk I could just toss this towel in the rafters and hide your clothes," Rachel stated picking up the massive beach towel. She handed him the towel. "And you'll have to climb up naked or streak into the house."

Rachel turned around and crossed her arms.

"And I supposed that's something else you'll need to explain to your grandfather," Taurus responded straightly, drying off. He pulled his underclothes and pulled on the kilt. He hung the wet towel a post.

Rachel did not respond to his little quip, she remained with her back to him, arms crossed. Taurus strolled over to her and stood beside her. He held up his ponytail and wrung it out…right over her head.

"AHH Taurus!" Rachel exclaimed. Taurus twisted his head and the lengthy ponytail cracked like a whip behind him. "I smell like a wet moldy cow-dog now! Thanks Taurus."

"You are welcome Rachel," Taurus answered as the human began to wring out the perused water from her own hair. Rachel shook her head. Her mass of hair struck her back with a "thwap".

Over their discussion, they both could hear a car pulling up in the driveway. Charlie loudly greeted the visitors and followed by the unmistakable clamor of small children.

"Granpa!"

Rachel held a finger to pause Taurus and slid open of the barn door just a crack. "Oh great…"

"We have visitors I take it, Miss Wesley?" Taurus stated. "Would you like me to remain here for the duration of the visit?"

"For the time being," Rachel answered she quickly disappeared.

Taurus pulled up a crate and sat down on it by the doorway. Rachel and her family had entered the house, and Taurus could not even hear a scrap of conversation. It was very quiet and dull sitting in the barn…and it began to smell of…moldy cow-dog as Miss Wesley eloquently put it. There was a rap at the door, and cautiously it slid open.

"Hey," Rachel said. She slid into the barn and quickly shut the door behind her. "My niece and nephews are here."

"Oh," Taurus said.

"Remember when I told you about my sister's house burning down? Well they're going house hunting, and my older brother is helping them out," Rachel responded. "And my grandpa got stuck with the kids."

"Oh," Taurus stated. "Do you think your grandfather—Charlie—could handle them by himself?"

"I think so, I'm with in ear shot if he needs me," Rachel responded, sitting down beside him. "It's just my niece Carlie, she's three and my two nephews, Noah age six, and Dillon, age four. If they had left the baby I would have to help my grandfather, but he should be able to handle them with no problem what so ever. And I can't have you sitting in a barn all by yourself."

"It sounds nice, having a large family," Taurus responded. "And you do not have to change your plans around me Rachel. I fully understand this situation, and there will be no resentment on my—"

Rachel pressed a finger against Taurus's lips. She smiled

"It's nice having a large family," Rachel answered.

"I can imagine," Taurus answered, slightly stunned. Rachel seemed prepared to ask Taurus a question—about his own family no doubt.

"You wanna play 'Go Fish'? I brought cards so we have something to do," Rachel said, holding up the deck Charlie and he were playing with earlier. "I'm pretty crummy at poker."

"And I am not any better," Taurus responded. Rachel began to deal out the cards. "I suppose I could learn this 'Go Fish' then."

&&&

When children have something on their mind, they have something on their mind, and it is going to stay there and continually be vocalized to the parents and to the children themselves to remind themselves that there is something they want to see or do, and to add to later to a scrapbook of traumatic memories for their teenaged years angst that would be brought up in the same whining tones as they would remind their parents of their childhood disappointments.

Rachel mentioned made the mistake of mentioning the new born calf while at home. Her siblings made the mistake of asking their children if they wanted either A) a sitter or B) a visit to Great Granpap's. Undoubtedly the children chose the latter. After eating their cookies and milk, they quickly demanded seeing the new born calf. Charlie could not fight with his great grandchildren, unfortunately the calf was in the barn, and so were Rachel and Taurus as far as he was concerned…but Dora the Explorer could only provide so much distraction for the young children. As soon as that damn Benny the bull would appear…

"I wanna go see the baby cow!"

"Baby cow baby cow baby cow!"

"BABY COW" in an ear popping screech.

"GUDAMMIT!"

Finally the breaking point happened and Charlie had to leave his grandchildren for a few moments to race up to the barn to warn Rachel and Taurus grandfatherly love won over the crucial concealment of an island…

"I can't believe how hot this barn can get," Rachel complained.

"I find it quite pleasant," Taurus answered from his hand of cards. "Do you have any—"

Taurus pulled a card from his hand and showed her.

"Jacks," Rachel responded then handed him two from her deck.

"Do you have any—ones?" Taurus asked.

"Aces," Rachel responded. "Go fish."

Rachel rolled her sleeves to her elbows, but that only added to the annoyance. Rachel began to pull her college logo embroidered sweatshirt up over her camisole….

"Rae, what on earth are you doing?" Charlie exclaimed. Rachel could not see—having the sweatshirt up over head, and tumbled off of the crate she was sitting on, but not without taking the bale her and Taurus were using as a table. Cards drifted down like feathers. Only Taurus's cards were still in their original place his hand—Taurus, on the other hand was confused whether he should gather the cards, or pull the bale off of Rachel and help her up. Rachel pushed the bale off her and Taurus helped her up. Rachel pulled the sweatshirt down over her camisole. She was even more irritated now…there were at least two dozen straws poking her through her camisole.

"Go fish," Taurus answered matter-of-fact. He looked at the chaos scattered on the ground. "I was winning this particular game."

"I could tell," Charlie spat out. Taurus looked confused. "Nevermind, sorry to frighten you two like that."

"It's all right Grandpa," Rachel said, red faced (those straws were getting very irritating)

"The grandkids want to see the calf, I'm afraid you two are gonna have to leave the barn. They're raising Cain and screaming bloody murder," Charlie answered.

"I understand your obligation to your grandchildren Charles," Taurus stated. Charlie looked started, whether it was from Taurus's dictation or being called "Charles" or a mixture of both, was unknown. "Charles…that is your proper name right?"

"Yes, but don't you go calling me that? Okay?" Charlie said.

Taurus seemed taken back now. Rachel chuckled as she shook the straw from her shirt. She pulled her shirt off and tied it around her waist.

"We better go, Taurus" Rachel stated touching his arm. They left out one side of the barn and cut through the cow pens and strolled up to Clover's field.

"I told you he wouldn't like being called that," Rachel stated.

"I felt it would be appropriate for me to address your grandfather by his proper name, or at least let him know I am thankful for his hospitality," Taurus answered.

"He's a simple guy, Taurus," Rachel responded. "Charlie will do, he appreciates that."

"So is that like…three?" Taurus suddenly stated after a moment of silence.

"Three what?"

"Three heart attacks," Taurus answered. "Did he think we were playing some sort of—strip game?"

"WHAT? Uh…NO…I mean…probably…how do you know of those kind of games?" Rachel exclaimed, her face burning the brightest shade of red he had ever seen yet. He noticed her covering her chest with her arms. It made a piece of straw stuck in her strap stand straight up—annoying Taurus.

Taurus's face turned red for a brief second. He coughed. "I assume that in many cultures there a variations of games in which the removal clothing are the bartering chips…"

"Not surprised," Rachel responded straightly, staring ahead.

"If you have no money or some sort of gambling currency at hand, I supposed clothes would be—"

"Taurus, don't get philosophical about strip poker," Rachel quickly stated.

"You can play that that way?" Taurus involuntarily asked—maybe a bit too wholehearted. Rachel was suddenly a few steps ahead of him. "Sorry…"

Rachel and Taurus sat on an old bench watching Clover trot in the field. They did not speak much. Rachel scratched at her head, looked down the path that lead them there, and Taurus, believing he may have offended Rachel in some manner, had his chin in his hand and looked into Clover's field.

"Carlie! Carlie! Rachel!" Charlie screamed. "Is Carlie up there!"

Rachel immediately jumped up and bolted down the pathway. Taurus quickly bolted after her—by instinct and the sense of duty. He nearly tumbled over Rachel and Carlie on the pathway. While the boys saw the calf (or chased one of the many barn cats around), Carlie managed to sneak through the door Rachel and Taurus left open. She succeeded into walking up the path, but became very disoriented close to the shed and began to bawl. She was half sick with stress. Rachel picked up the little girl and hefted her up. The little girl's eyes were large and frozen…staring straight at Taurus.

"Found her!" Rachel exclaimed. She brushed away the terrified toddler's blonde curls. In a gentler, sympathetic tone she said to the little girl, "You were trying to see the horsie, weren't you?"

Carlie was quiet, chewing on her tiny thumbnail. She pointed over Rachel's shoulder then buried her face into Rachel's shoulder.

"You want to see Clover?" Rachel asked and turned, ramming into Taurus.

"I am sorry, but I believe she has seen me," Taurus stated.

"That's okay, she's three," Rachel responded walking passed Taurus. Carlie looked over her shoulder, bug eyed at Taurus. "She won't remember this when she's older. Do you remember your childhood verbatim?"

An early memory of being rushed to the hospital with tiny candies shoved in one nostril and the rainbow colored snot that dribbled down it burst into Taurus's skull. It took both his mother and his father to hold him down as his nostril was suctioned clean. Frankly all Taurus could remember was actually holding the box of candies, his mother's screams and the feeling of pride that erupted in his body as they sped to his father's work to show Asterius what Taurus just did and ask what to do about the problem, and the dizzying feeling of looking up at the doctor's office ceiling. "No."

Rachel called Clover over, and the horse was much more welcoming to the young child than she was to Taurus. Rachel gently soothed the little girl as she clumsily patted the horse's nose. Finally Clover grew bored and trotted away and Carlie pulled herself into Rachel's arm and buried her face into Rachel's shoulder. Rachel rocked the little girl.

"Let's get you back to Granpa," Rachel cooed.

"She had it rough," Taurus added…feeling like an outsider. He felt an alien stirring…desiring to belong to a situation the most him felt that he did not belong in. He reached to stroke the little girl's hair and immediately she began to cry. Taurus fell back. "I believe I have frightened her…"

Rachel paused and began to soothe the little girl again, stroking the back of her head. Carlie buried her face behind Rachel's hair, sobbing lightly. "Shh, shh."

Rachel walked down the pathway, Taurus stood by the horse shed, waiting for her to come back after she dropped Carlie off. About halfway down the path, Rachel turned and waved to Taurus. She gestured for him to follow.

"Taurus!"

Nervously Taurus strolled down. He did not make contact with the little girl, peeking over Rachel's shoulder. If he even turned his head, Carlie would cry and violently seizure. If he came too close, her reactions would be even more violent. Taurus kept his head focus on the cows in the field and tried to look completely dissatisfied in the little girl who would look at him, chewing on a piece of Rachel's hair. As long as Taurus did not acknowledge her, Carlie did not cry and squirm.

The barn was empty, so Taurus stayed there while Rachel carried her little niece into the house. Inside the house, Charlie was pulling on his coat, the two boys in tow.

"I'm taking the boys out to the feed store and then to the vets to get shots and formula for the new calf, I'll be getting some pizzas and getting some ice cream Rae on the way back, what kind of pizza do _you_ want?" Charlie asked.

"I'm fine with any kind, and something with pineapple on it," Rachel stated setting the little girl down. Carlie gripped her hand.

"What kinda milkshake do you want Carlie?" Charlie asked, kneeling down on the floor. Carlie giggled and smiled.

"Nilla," she softly answered.

"You?" Charlie asked.

"Just grab two vanillas," Rachel responded.

"K," Charlie answered. "See ya Rae."

"Bye RACHEL!" the two boys screamed as loud as possible.

"Dammit you two!" Charlie swore as the screen door clang shut.

The pickup truck started and was gone. Rachel opened the door and stood out on the porch. "TAURUS! IT"S SAFE NOW!"

Taurus cautiously walked down to the house and into the kitchen. Immediately Carlie squealed and stamping her feet in terror, and Taurus stumbled out the door just a millisecond after stepping in.

"Carlie! Carolynn! Don't!" Rachel ordered picking the little girl up. "He's not scary. Shh shh shh. Taurus come back in."

Taurus slowly stepped. "Miss Wesley I fear my presence is frightening to your young niece, perhaps it is best if—I just remain in the barn."

"It's okay Taurus," Rachel said, carrying the little girl into the living room. "She's being fussy."

Rachel turned on the television set on a kid's show and set the little girl down in front of the set. Almost immediately she quieted down.

"You don't have a lot of experience with children, do you?" Rachel asked Taurus, who was standing right beside her…just staring.

Taurus was caught a little of guard. "Well…Rachel…in my line of work…in my lifetime…well I did do…well…no is the answer Rachel."

Rachel chuckled and sat down on the love seat. Taurus sat down on the floor beside her. "It must be ni—comforting to have small children in the family."

"Yeah, I haven't seen them such a long time," Rachel said. "This is my first time actually seeing Carlie, well, I do play with her when I went home to write up my reports, but you know, if it wasn't for you, I would never have been able to see her."

"It was all merely payment Miss Wesley for the kindness you have given me," Taurus answered.

Rachel leaned over and put her arms around his neck. She tugged on his ear. "You can say that all you want, but we both know you just wanted to see the cows."

Taurus rolled his eyes. A commercial came on and Carlie stumbled away from the TV set to dig through a chest of toys. With a paper Burger King crown on her head and a lengthy feathered boa wrapped around her shoulders, she came pushing a little vacuum cleaner across the floor. With her free hand she tried desperately to keep the crown and the boa on as she "swept" the floor.

"What are you doing Carlie?" Rachel asked playfully. "Are you cleaning the living room for us?"

Carlie giggled, blushing, and pulled the crown down over her face. "Heehee."

Taurus noted he could never say question without sounding like he was in a police interrogation.

Carlie pushed the vacuum cleaner back into the corner. She return with a blanket in one hand and began to stretch it out on the floor. Rachel crawled down off the loveseat and helped Carlie out. Carlie left Rachel to fix the blanket, reappearing with an armful of toys. She put a big floppy hat on Rachel's head and began to set animals around the blanket. She disappeared once again only to return with a baby doll brush and several pieces of jewelry. Cautiously she pulled herself up onto the couch and carefully crawled over to Taurus and began to brush (more pull than brush) his hair.

"Rachel—what is she doing?" Taurus asked, slightly startled.

"Trying to brush your hair," Rachel answered. "She's not doing it because your hair is messy, Taurus. Consider it a compliment."

"Oh," Taurus said and felt another tug.

Carlie began to crawl onto Taurus's shoulder. Rachel hurried over and supported the little girl from falling off his shoulder. Carlie placed several plastic bracelets and necklaces on his horn. Taurus, stiff, just looked at his horned, somewhat confused.

"You're all pretty now Taurus," Rachel giggled. "You made him all pretty!"

Carlie began to clap and giggle—proudly. The little girl once again took off and came back with plates and a fake tea kettle. Rachel gestured for Taurus to scoot in. Carlie "served" the two and the many toys "tea". After ten minutes Carlie grew bored and jumped on Rachel attempting to tickle her. Rachel responded by tickling Carlie who screamed—Taurus almost jumped through the roof—with childish delight, kicking her little legs. Taurus did not need to feel ignored—Carlie quickly jumped on Taurus—but found tickling the minotaur completely unsatisfactory. Taurus was too terrified to respond, in fear he may hurt the child, as well the fact he thought he may not be capable of tickling. Carlie was inventive and found climbing over the minotaur made up for his lack of reaction.

Rachel put the toys away and was kind enough to remove the jewelry from Taurus's horns—but not the child, perching on his neck, holding onto his horns.

"Giddyup!" Carlie exclaimed, pulling on his ears.

"Carlie it's not nice to pull on Taurus's ears," Rachel exclaimed.

"Giddyup!"

"Carlie!" Rachel said, "what did I just tell you?"

"Rachel, she is fine," Taurus responded, "as long as she is not screaming in terror, I am fine."

The minotaur stood up, using one hand to hold onto Carlie. Carlie screeched in terror and Taurus sat back down onto the loveseat, Carlie slid off his shoulders.

"I am sorry, Carlie," Taurus said to the little human girl.

"She's won't be to do that again," Rachel added humorously. The little girl was back on her feet and slid off the loveseat.

The phone began to ring. "Taurus could you watch Carlie for me?"

"Of course Rachel," Taurus responded. Rachel ran over to the phone. Taurus looked to where the little girl was playing just seconds before—only to find her gone. He saw the sliver of a little shoe on the steps. Taurus chased after her.

"Miss Carlie! Come back here at once!" Taurus said, knowing that if he sounded too authoritative he would scare the toddler. She was two steps from the top. Taurus quickly clambered up the steps as she pulled herself up onto the hallway. Giggling loudly, she bolted away.

She ran into Rachel's Uncles' room. Taurus saw and heard her. However in the room, she was nowhere to be seen. Taurus, however, knew where she was…the quivering bed duster could not lie. Taurus stalked around the bed.

"Carlie? Miss Carlie? Carolynn? Where did you go?" he said. Quietly he went down on his knees and picked up the duster, he could see Carlie's little feet, but she did not see him. Taurus gently grabbed her little ankles and pulled her out from under the bed. Carlie screeched and started laughing when she was immediately in the light. She grabbed hold of the bedspread and pulled it off the bed as Taurus attempted to carry her back down stairs.

"I want to play!" she ordered.

"It is safer to play downstairs," Taurus said.

"NO! NO NO NO NO NO!" she slammed her tiny fists on his shoulder. Taurus maneuvered her, carrying her under his arm. She began to sob. Taurus set her down on the ground.

"What do you want?" he asked, kneeling down before her.

&&&

"So where did you find it? Huh…don't you think single level is too small? How many bedrooms? That's good. Bathrooms? One? Oh come on, you can't live with one bathroom, especially with three kids. Don't you remember when we were growing up? Well you asked for my honest opinion," Rachel said. Taurus stalked into the kitchen, Carlie under one arm, the Burker King crown still on her head. Rachel covered the mouthpiece of the phone. "What are you doing?"

"Getting Miss Carolynn something to drink," Taurus answered. Rachel nodded and returned to her conversation which went into a rant about being locked out a bathroom. Taurus held a jug up. "Milk Miss Carolynn?"

The little shook her head. He picked up a jug, half full, and read the label.

"Orange juice?"

She shook her head again.

"Pepsi?"

The little girl's eyes lit up.

"No Pepsi!" Rachel said. "Give her the apple juice."

Taurus search through the top then second shelves of the fridge and before finding the yellow brown plastic container. He opened the glass cupboard.

"I want a big cup!" Carlie immediately interjected. Taurus took out a medium size plastic cup. He set Carlie down at the table and filled the cup halfway.

"Enough?"

"More!"

Taurus filled the cup up to the top. Carlie, shakily, picked up the cup. Almost immediately Taurus knew he did something wrong…

SPLASH!

Carlie started to bawl, Rachel jumped. The little girl was completely soaked in apple juice. The juice dripped off her face, out of her nostrils, soaked her shirt.

"Carlie knocked the apple juice over, I have to go clean it up, I will talk to you later, yes, bye!" Rachel said.

"Miss Wesley I did not mean to!" Taurus immediately said.

"It's okay Taurus, it's okay," Rachel said, picking the little girl up. "I'll clean her up, you clean up the mess okay?"

"Okay," Taurus answered. Rachel carried the dripping little girl off. Somewhat lonely, Taurus cleaned up the mess.

Twenty minutes later, Carlie dressed in Dora the Explorer pajamas (they were in a little backpack, along with the sippy cup Rachel forgot to tell Taurus to get) pranced out of the bathroom. A very soaked and sticky Rachel, and smelling like Mr. Bubbles, followed behind her.

"Thanks for cleaning the mess up Taurus," Rachel said. Taurus was sitting on the loveseat. Rachel sat down beside him.

"You are welcome Miss Wesley," Taurus answered. "I see the two of you had a bath."

"No, just her," Rachel responded, while the toddler rolled around on the floor, picking up dust. Rachel looked at her wet clothes, "Oh! Sorry, I didn't get that at first. Eh, she just splashed a lot, you know kids."

"Unfortunately I do not," Taurus responded dryly. Carlie stumbled over to Rachel and Rachel pulled her up onto the loveseat. Carlie curled up in Rachel's lap. She kicked around a few times then crawled half off Rachel's lap and half onto Taurus's expansive lap, stretched out like a little bridge between the two. She closed her eyes, kicked once, twice, and fell asleep.

"Here Taurus, I'll move her," Rachel said.

"That is all right Miss Wesley, she can stay, she has had a rough day," Taurus stated. "She's not screaming in terror or covered in juice, she is fine."

"All right, if you say so," Rachel said. "So Taurus, do you have any kids of your own?"

"WHAT?" Taurus stated, at the absurdity of the question. "Oh…humor."

"Yeah, looks like you're getting it," Rachel said.

"Yeah," Taurus responded and sat back in the loveseat.

&&&

_Later that night…._

"I kinda guess you'd be up here…I'm a little surprised that I was right," Rachel said as she crawled up into the loft. Taurus just finished spreading out his mat on the floor. He had opened the loft doors.

"I decided I wanted to sleep here tonight, if that is all right with you, Rachel," Taurus stated, semi-unfolding a blanket. He sat down by the window.

"It's fine, it's fine, you don't have to ask," Rachel said sitting down on a hay bale. "You have fun today?"

"Yes," Taurus answered sitting down on his mat, legs crossed, blanket around his shoulders. He leaned against the wall of hay.

"I'll let you sleep, just wanted to know where you are," Rachel said heading towards the ladder. She began to descend down the ladder.

"I am not tired Miss Wesley," Taurus stated. "I would be content if you stayed up here awhile to—chat?"

Rachel's face popped up, perplexed. She pulled herself up, strolled over, and plopped down beside the mat. "So what do you want to chat about?"

"Mmm, I am not good on matters such as this, perhaps you should begin," Taurus stated. Rachel expressed surprise and puzzlement, but knowing Taurus saying anything else would be completely out of character for him, she began to think, what to "chat" over.

"My grandfather named the little bull calf," Rachel said.

"Really, what did he name it?" Taurus asked.

"Mini-Taurus," Rachel responded with a chuckle. "Get it?"

"I guess," Taurus responded, scratching his chin. "He didn't have to name a cow after me…"

"So the farm—is it like anything you have ever seen before?" Rachel dropped another topic.

"No, we do have farming in New Olympus; it is not as primitive as this," Taurus answered. "I expected your equipment and farming procedures to be primitive, and so was prepared—but I found an odd quaintness to this scene, a quaintness I believe no farm in New Olympus could recreate. Despite its simplicity, this farm is in harmony."

Rachel nodded her head—scarcely following him.

"I like my visit so far, Rachel," Taurus stated. "The animals, the people, the work—everything—_whiff—_except the smell, I may never get used to the smell."

Rachel chuckled. "I'm glad you came. It's nice sharing this stuff with someone else, you know, stuff you've gotten so used to or just forgot about until you see it through someone else's eyes."

Taurus was quiet. "You are very lucky Miss Wesley to have a place such as this."

"No I'm not," Rachel said in a light hearted tone. "We all have our own special place. I'm pretty sure you're lucky yourself; you know have a technologically advanced city. Everything you could ever want is at your fingertips; can you imagine how it would be for me?"

"I could only imagine Miss Wesley," Taurus answered. "But I was not talking about completely talking about this place Miss Wesley, but these people—your family."

"Oh, yeah, sorry, I remember you telling me about that a while ago," Rachel said scratching behind her ear.

"It is okay Rachel," Taurus answered. Rachel was surprised to hear him continue. "My mother passed away when I was young, just a bit younger than you were when your grandmother passed way. My father explained it to me. My mother was a dryad and dryads are ruled by plants, some dryads are perennials others are annuals—strong and everlasting, graceful and fading. That is the thing with dryads, some will age gracefully others…many…will die at their peaks. That is the frailty of the dryad. Flowers cannot bloom forever, my father explained me."

"Oh," Rachel responded, taken. They were actually _talking_? She blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "I'm sorry to hear that. It must have been tough growing up without a mother."

"I supposed it was; my memories of my early childhood are fleeting. My memories are not sad. My father was there for me. My mother's passing affected him, I knew it did, I saw it in his eyes, but he did not let me suffer. He made sure I did not suffer because of his depression," Taurus responded.

"Your father was chief of security," Rachel said. "Something happened to him, didn't it?"

Rachel regretted what she said. She shouldn't have asked him that.

Taurus looked away for a brief moment, out onto the farm. "He was murdered on the job."

Rachel did not answer. Taurus moved over from the window, sitting across from Rachel now.

"What happened to him?"

Taurus shut his eyes. Word for word, date for date, line by line, pencil marks, mistakes, stains, smudges…every little bit, every little detail of the report formed. Rachel's hand wrapped around one of his fingers.

"I understand if you don't want to talk about it," Rachel whispered.

"Being friends for so long Rachel, I feel it is appropriate we should," Taurus stated. He continued. "There were a series of crimes, same perpetrator each time—a shapeshifter by the name of Proteus. The crime themselves were minor crimes; breaking and entering warehouses, homes, and stores, larceny, both minor and major. His exact purpose was unknown by anyone other than Proteus himself at the time. The crisis was that if any officer that managed to appear at the scene while the crime was occurring was met with a violent response—not shots or a fight to escape—Proteus would literally brutalize them, beat them in unconsciousness—even if they posed no threat, even if other officers were only blocks away—if he could, he would. Then he would escape. He always escaped. Then he would toy with us. The simple crimes, the reaction, they were perplexing, and finally my father realized what Proteus was planning on committing; creating a powerful bomb, enough to destroy half of New Olympus. He hated society, was disgusted by it, and he felt it was his job to end it. It was my father who finally managed to track Proteus to his hideout. My father surprised Proteus, and had the upper hand, but Proteus soon overpowered him. A single punch, right through his chest, into his heart—it was a fatal wound, severe hemorrhaging. My father's last action was to shoot an electrified net at Proteus, capturing him at last."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Your father, he sounds like a good man," Rachel said.

"Yes," Taurus responded, "he was."

"And what about Proteus, what happened to him?" Rachel asked.

"He is currently incarcerated," Taurus responded. "Everyday of my life I have to look at that bastard who murdered my father, who threatened two blow up my city not once, but twice, everyday I have to deal with his sneers, his jokes, his laughter. He mocks me, mocks my father's death, mocks my father, mocks that I am now in my father's place, and mocks my failures, my faults. He torments me. Captivity is nothing to him. How gladly I would be to see his neck wrung."

Rachel said nothing. There was something about her eyes he found unnerving.

"I am sorry Rachel," Taurus said. "I did not mean that…"

_Yes you did…_Proteus spoke up in his mind.

Once again there was no conversation. Both Taurus and Rachel looked out the window.

"It's a beautiful night," Rachel said. "Are the skies like this in New Olympus?"

"Hmm," Taurus thought. "I believe they are clearer here."

"Definitely clearer than in New York City," Rachel added.

"Yeah," Taurus answered.

It was quiet again.

"I don't think you're a bad cop," Rachel spoke up. She appeared beside him. "Bad cops couldn't do what you do or care as much about justice the way you do—as corny as it sounds. I wouldn't let it get to you."

_She's the millionth person who has told you that, _Proteus mocked again. _And you're not gonna listen! For millionth time, you're not gonna listen…_

"You can't let this guy get to you Taurus, that's what he wants. He wants to shake people up, he wants to ruin them. He can't kill you, but he'll try to ruin your life, he'll try to ruin your life even worse than he already has. Don't let him succeed. It seems like he's already taken a lot of your life, don't let him take anymore," Rachel said. "But don't shut yourself off completely from the world because him. Don't let him change you in any way."

"Yeah," Taurus responded. Rachel placed her hand on top of his. Then one arm went around his neck. A part of himself collapsed. With the stars and the barn cats as his only witnesses, both his arms went around her.

Proteus said nothing.

&&&

Rachel worked at the home on her papers all the next day. Taurus helped Charlie around the farm with the chores. Charlie prattled the entire time about the farm, peppering it with questions about New Olympus, which Taurus answered as truthfully as possible, since they were all about the agricultural district of New Olympus.

"Genetics huh? Don't things that have that done to them end up eating people—like in movies?"

"Uh…I believe not, Charlie," Taurus answered. "The movies Miss Wesley and I see are not on topics such as that."

"Oh, really?" Charlie said. He laughed to himself and went back to work until another question would pop up.

Rachel did not show up until sunset, laden down with gifts from her family—new clothes, books, cookies, knick knacks and such. Taurus and Charlie were on the back porch. Charlie had a beer in his hand while Taurus sat on the edge of the porch, packed and ready. It was another hour before Rachel was packed and ready to go.

"Charlie I want to thank you for all the experiences and opportunities you have offered me. I am in your debt," Taurus stated, shaking Charlie's hand.

"The pleasure is mine Taurus. It was real nice having you here at the farm, and you're always welcomed back. We could always use the extra help," Charlie responded. Rachel and Charlie hugged. Words were exchanged between the two then another hug. Taurus was immediately struck with the image of Laurel…he should probably go see her before his vacation was over.

Charlie stood at the doorway, blocking the orange light of the kitchen, as they headed to the barn to retrieve Taurus's hoverbike. Rachel kept waving with her freehand, even pausing at the barn door to give one final long wave. Charlie shut the kitchen door, the orange light was gone. Rachel walked into the barn.

"Ready to go Rachel?" Taurus asked.

She nodded.

Taurus drove slowly above the farm, so not to spook the cows. Rachel leaned over his arm so that she could get one last glance of the farm. With a contented sigh she returned to her seat.

"So are you going to spend the night at my house, or return back to your house?" Rachel asked. "My mom gave me some of my movies, we could watch them."

"No thanks Miss Wesley," Taurus responded. "I have other business to attend to when I return home, rather important business. As well, are you not concerned with your studies? I will drop you off and continue on my way."

"Will you be back?" Rachel asked.

"Of course," Taurus answered. "Maybe not as often, but would you like me to set up some sort of…date…as in particular dates I could stop by and learn of your culture."

"That's okay, it's kinda nice just to have you pop up now and then," Rachel responded. "It would be nice if I could learn something about your culture. Maybe next time you could bring the movies."

"We'll see," Taurus answered.

"I look forward to it," Rachel responded.

A few hours later, Taurus dropped Rachel off on the roof of her house. He dismounted the hovercraft and helped her carry her many packages down into the apartment.

"I do not recall you have this much when we left here," Taurus stated.

"Well that's what my family's like," Rachel, stressfully, responded setting bags onto the table. Taurus followed suite.

"Well then Rachel, you are unpacked, I will see you next time," Taurus responded with a slight bow. "Thank you once again."

"No thank you," Rachel said, giving Taurus a quick hug…and was surprised when he responded, though he had to bend over to do it.

"You have a good night," Taurus said…embarrassed.

"Have a safe flight," Rachel said, winded. Taurus smiled right before he left. There was the din of his hoverbike, then the din of the city. Rachel slid open the door to her balcony and stood there for a moment, trying to figure out which light in the distance was him. It was cool outside, but Rachel was very warm.

&&&

"Why did you want me to wear this dress again?" Calypso asked tottering behind Taurus. She wore the very same dress she wore on the night of the banquet. A brooch, a present from Taurus, covered a sauce stained from that very night. Taurus had a packaged under his one hand, and was dressed in his better outfits—courtesy of Calypso. She spent two hours fidgeting over his clothes and helping him choose an appropriate outfit. She spent another hour doing his hair, claiming he wasn't using it to its fullest potential—whatever that meant.

"Because you look nice in it," Taurus stated quickly as he strolled up the sidewalk to the villa.

"Really?" Calypso said.

"Yes," Taurus said.

"I haven't been here for years," Calypso said at the doorway. "I think my mother was a member…I can't really remember…they stopped sending me notifications and junk when I was still in school. I had a lot better things to do then go to silly meetings."

Taurus knocked on the door. A young Oread, her skin soft grey speckled with brown, her eyes blue like a spring sky, and long wavy brown hair, answered the door. She nearly jumped out her mountainy skin upon seeing Taurus—probably out of the shock of seeing him there…not in his Security outfit but dressed up with some other purpose than arresting someone. Did some member of the House have a date with him? The Oread looked behind her. Looking under his arm she could see Calypso—who promptly waved.

"Is Laurel here?" Taurus asked. "I am her grandson and I wish to see her and spend some time with my family."

_Phew, that was a doozy of a chapter. I hope you liked it. It will be a while until I update again—finals are coming up. But any reviews or requests or thoughts feel free to email me or leave a review, I could always use the help. Thanks. _


End file.
